


Down the rabbit hole

by StringerB237



Category: One Tree Hill
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 47,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28917390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StringerB237/pseuds/StringerB237
Summary: It all started with a rabbit. A white-furred rabbit, that kept gracefully leaping and bouncing in front of her, as if it wanted to be caught. But for some reason, she would not budge, not even for a little bit. She would keep looking at it, as it went around her garden and eventually down the rabbit hole.
Relationships: Brooke Davis/Lucas Scott
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

She didn’t know where all these people were coming from, but they had been continuously flowing into the house for the past two hours. She shouldn’t have been that surprised though; Nathan was hosting the end-of-summer party for the third year in a row. At first, there had been no more than 30 people. That number had doubled the year after. And this year, well… Apparently it was now common knowledge in their school that Nathan’s parties were good. Not just good, they were great. Again, that shouldn’t have come as a surprise for her, as she had spent a lot of time in his house for years now, and she knew how great it was.

It was huge. _Really_ huge. And that meant anyone could have fun at his parties : you could find people to drink with, people to dance with, people to debate with, and Nathan being who he was, people to play sports with. All at the same time, at the same place.

She sighed, walking around the living room, into the kitchen, scanning each room as she was looking for a familiar face. Any familiar face. It was apparently of no use.

She turned on her heels, and went back to the living room, where a group of students stopped her and asked her to have a drink with them. A year ago, she would have complied, but she had apparently matured enough in the meantime to tell them that she was driving tonight, and she couldn’t drink anymore.

She went around them, greeted another group of students and refused yet another drink, and then she finally managed to get out of the house.

She let out another sigh, this time of content, as she walked outside; the house was so crammed with people that just breathing was starting to get hard.

She went around the house, passed by the driveway and reached the calmer side of the party. There were people there, but Nathan had decided this year not to put out any alcohol in his garden or near his private court. So they were mainly talking and playing basketball. She decided not to join them and instead went to sit down on the patch of grass between the basketball court and the flowerbeds.

Her eyes suddenly stopped on a silhouette lying across the grass, a few feet away on her left. She tilted her head, squinting as she tried to recognize who that was. Darkness made it difficult for her to even throw a guess; she looked away, deciding that it didn’t matter until she heard that person move suddenly and retch on their left side. Well, she couldn’t ignore them now, could she?

As she got up and walked over to them, surprise struck her as she recognized the boy lying down in front of her, his face dangerously leaning close to a pool of vomit.

“What’s up with you?” she couldn’t help but ask, kneeling next to him.

He turned to her side and looked up at her, his eyes red, his whole demeanor screaming disappointment.

“She rejected me” he said, his voice turning into a whine she was not used to from him.

And then she remembered seeing him, earlier that night, going upstairs with a girl that she knew well… Her best friend. She hadn’t helped but notice how hopeful he had been then. She knew – no, everyone in their high school knew that he had been pining for her best friend for more than a year. Apparently, he had finally decided to tell her how he felt about her.

She had not known how her friend was going to react. She tended to be quite mysterious when it came to the matters of love. Well, now she knew.

“What did she say?” she asked him with a soft voice.

“That, erm…” he said, rolling his body on one side and lifting himself up with his elbows, “she did not see me that way.”

He managed to stand up, his eyes shifting between her and something invisible right next to her. She frowned; he really didn’t look well.

“There’s two of you…” he mumbled, before wobbling back and forth.

“Maybe you should si−” she started saying worriedly, but it was already too late. His body dropped on his side, falling down right on the pool of vomit he had made a few minutes ago.

“Fuck.” He said, facing the grass, his eyes closed in a frown. “This is so fucking pathetic.”

Had she ever heard him swear before? But then again, had she ever heard him say more than 5 words?

“Alright”, she said, standing up and bending over to grab one of his arms, “come on big boy, stand up”. She managed to help him up again and this time, as he used her as a clutch, he did not fall. “Let’s go”, she told him, as she tried to pull him with her.

He wasn’t moving though. “Where?” he asked her.

“We need to get you cleaned up”, she said, pinching her nose as she was trying not to get sick with the smell stuck on his shirt.

He blinked twice, looking at her as if she had gone mad. The alcohol probably had its role in his confusion, but she knew it wasn’t just that. After all, they had never really talked before. And her very own best friend had just broken his heart, leading him to get drunk. But she wasn’t heartless; she couldn’t just leave him to swim into his puke, could she?

“Come on”, she simply repeated, pulling on his back.

Thankfully, as she knew this house’s every way in and out, they went through a backdoor and managed to avoid the crowd that was in the living room. She helped him upstairs and opened a door, revealing a bathroom behind it.

“Alright”, she turned to him, “you sit here and don’t move.”

He still looked confused by her behavior but obeyed anyway, sitting down on the floor tiles, his back leaning on the bathtub.

She went back in the hallway and moved quickly to its other end, where she knew was Nathan’s room. She knocked on its door, and when she got no answer, she knew she was free to go in. She walked over to his chest of drawers, randomly opened them until she found what she was looking for. She knew Nathan wouldn’t mind her borrowing a few clothes, considering who it was for.

When she returned to the bathroom, she noticed that he had not moved an inch, which made her chuckle.

“Good boy” she said, handing him the t-shirt she had brought him. He blinked again, his eyes travelling from her face to her stretched out arm. “If I were you, I’d change my clothes” she told him with a shrug.

“Oh. Right”, he said, apparently just realizing that his t-shirt was smeared with vomit. He took off his t-shirt… Correction, she thought, trying hard not to laugh at him, when she noticed how hard he was struggling with removing his t-shirt.

She kneeled down: “Stop moving a second” she told him as she pulled his shirt over his shoulders and off him. She then got up and went over to the sink, washing the shirt and throwing it in the laundry basket.

When she turned around, she froze as she saw that, though he was now wearing a fresh and clean t-shirt, he was looking down at the floor, his head slightly bobbing.

“What now?” she asked with a sigh. “Are you gonna be sick again?”

He looked up at her with a pair of sad puppy eyes she had never seen on him before. “What’s wrong with me?” he asked, or rather whined.

She hesitated, looking at the door. Maybe if she could find Nathan and tell him, he would be able to talk to him. But it was no use, she had barely managed to find her friends earlier; finding Nathan was a lost cause. She looked back at him; he was still staring at her with the same look on his face. Well, she could not leave him alone now, could she?

She sat down next to him, facing the wall in front of them, and turned her head to him.

“That’s just the booze talking” she said with a nudge.

He shook his head, and then looked as if he was regretting doing that. When his eyes seemed stable again, he looked back at her. “No, I’m serious. There has to be something wrong with me. I mean, she… She said she couldn’t see me that way. But why ─”

“Look, it’s no use beating yourself over it. I know her, ok, I’ve known her my whole life and she’s, erm… She’s hard to convince. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

He frowned, then looked down again. “No, can’t be, there has to be something.”

She shook her head, wondering how she would be able to get out of this situation. How was she supposed to convince a drunken person that they were not worthless?

“You know, I got dumped too.”

His head jolted up, probably a tad too fast because he looked dizzy again for a second.

“You did?”

“Yeah, Mike dumped me this summer” she said with a shrug. Had she managed to sound nonchalant? And then, for some reason she added: “he said he couldn’t do the long-distance thing”.

He seemed to have a lot of trouble taking in what she had just told him. “He said what?”

“That he couldn’t do the long-distance thing” she repeated, emphasizing on the last words. “You know, he was moving out this summer to ─”

“Yeah, I know”, he cut her off. “But I didn’t know he broke up with you. Mike’s an idiot”.

She was so surprised from his reaction that she couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks. But I still got dumped. And yet, you don’t see me dragging myself down, or drinking my problems away.”

“Yeah, but you’re… you.”

“Look, it did hurt for a while, but… You shouldn’t let it get to you so much. So what if that one girl didn’t want you? Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be”, she said with a shrug.

His eyes narrowed a bit: “Those are very wise words coming from you”.

“I can be wise sometimes”, she chuckled.

“And here I thought you were only good at drinking and ─” he stopped talking, abruptly, his eyes going wide. “Oh no, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean… I’m such an ass.”

For some reason, she didn’t get mad at him. Maybe it was because he looked quite pitiful at that moment? “That’s okay”, she said with another shrug, “I’m pretty sure that’s what everybody else thinks of me. But I wish…” she stopped, wondering why she was telling him all that. Oh, screw it, it was not like he was going to remember any of this anyway, not with his level of drunkenness. “I wish I could show them that there’s much more to me, you know. I wish I could make them see…”

“I can” he said, his voice suddenly steadier.

“Huh? You can what?” she frowned, confused

“I can see it. I mean, you. I can see you.”

All of a sudden, his puppy eyes were turning into a much more intense look and she had to look away for a second, feeling her cheeks turning a slight pink shade.

“Well,” she said with a grin, “one down, 300 to go.”

He looked away at the wall before them, and seemed to have an epiphany, as he turned to her again and snapped his fingers so close to her face that she startled. “I know what you should do!” he eagerly shouted. “You should represent us.”

“Huh?” was all she could say as she was once more at a loss for words. 

“Yeah! For the student council! Turner said the election would be held this year!”

“Erm, okay, but how exactly did you go from ─”

“Come on! You’re cheery, and funny, and you’re hot,” he said, the words seemingly tumbling out of his mouth before he could realize what he was sating, “so you should be our president. Oh, and now you’re wise too.”

She stayed silent for a second, not knowing whether she should laugh or be embarrassed. “Erm, thanks for all these compliments, I mean really, thank you, but… I’m not sure it would be enough to win the election.”

“No, it would definitely be. I would vote for you.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that; she stopped after a few seconds when she noticed he was dead serious. “You really mean it”, she murmured, not sure how to react.

“Yeah, why don’t you try it.” He then tilted his head a little, looking slightly confused. “Or, maybe it is the booze talking. I feel a little…” he slurred. His head dropped on her shoulder, startling her.

“Hey”, she told him with a frown, “what are you doing?”

“I’d like to take a nap”, he answered, his voice gradually fading away.

“So? Do I look like a bed to you?” she retorted, but realized it was too late. He was fast asleep.

She sighed, then looked at him and couldn’t help but smile a little. She had never thought he would be so… surprising. But then again, she had never really tried to talk to him before. And he had never either. They were just so different; it had never occurred to her that she could get along with him.

She waited for a while, checking her phone and listening to music. Not long after that, she felt his head moving on her shoulder and turned to see that he was sitting up, running his hand in his hair. “What am I doing here?”

She decided she had done enough babysitting for the night. She stood up, her hands resting on her hips, and told him in an assertive voice that she was taking him home. He looked half befuddled, half asleep, but still complied. She helped him stand up then dragged him out of the house, to her car, opening the passenger door and helping him in.

She reached his house after taking a little detour, since he had given her wrong instructions on how to get there. “Alright, off you go now”, she told him with a nod towards his house.

He looked at the house, then back at her. “I can’t go.”

“What now?” she asked with a sigh.

He started laughing, surprising her once more. “I think I left my keys at the party.”

“That’s not funny!” she frowned, stripping his smile off his face.

“Right, sorry.”

“What am I supposed to do with you now? I’m not gonna keep driving you around all night long… Wait, aren’t your parents home?”

“Yup, probably sleeping now.”

“So, we should just call them.”

And suddenly, he looked like a fawn getting caught by hunters. He grabbed her shoulders, and leaning closer to her, whispered: “No, my mom will kill me!”

Why was he whispering now? Afraid he would wake his mother up?

“Alright, then who else can we call?” she asked, mimicking his tone.

“Uncle Keith?” he said, or rather asked. He then took his phone out of his pocket and squinted as he was fumbling wit it.

“Oh, just give me that”, she told him, rolling her eyes and grabbing his phone. She went into his contacts and tapped on Keith’s name. Fortunately for them, he answered quite quickly. Unfortunately for him, he sounded as if they had just woken him up.

“Yeah?” they heard him say in a hushed voice.

“Erm, hi sir, I’m parked right in front of your house and…”

“Keith !!” the boy next to her interrupted her, shouting in the phone she was still holding. “Keith, it’s me! You’ll never believe who’s in the car ─”

“Stop it!” she ordered him, backing away from him as far as she could. “Sorry about that, erm, I guess you know why I’m calling you. Could you open the door for him, he forgot his keys at Nathan’s.”

There was a long silent, as if Keith was taking in everything that had just happened. “Alright,” he said very quietly, “I’ll be out in a second.”

He hung up and she looked up, handing back the phone. “Now off you go.”

Well, she wasn’t done with him yet. She still had to help him out of the car and after he put his arm around her shoulder, walked him to the porch, just as the front door opened and a man, around his forties, appeared in a bathrobe, looking drowsy.

“Well, what do we have here?” he asked his nephew, and she could see that despite the tiredness in his voice, there was glint of humor in his eyes. He walked over to them and put his nephew’s other arm around his own shoulders.

“Hey Keith, check it out,” he says cheerfully, “that’s our future president!”

Keith looked at her with a perplexed frown. “Not of the United States”, she explained, “just the student council. If I even sign in”, she hurriedly added, realizing his drunken words had somehow crept into her mind. “Okay, I guess I can go now that you’re in good hands”, she said, letting go of his arm.

She looked at them going up the steps. Before they got in, Keith turned to her with a tired but genuine smile. “Thank you for driving him back. You didn’t have to.”

“Oh”, she said, embarrassed, “you’re welcome, no one could have done it anyway everyone was so hammered ─ I mean, no, it wasn’t that bad, erm… Well it’s just too bad that we don’t have…” She slowed down, as she seemed to realize something. “A system,” she murmured, “with students, who would take turns in driving other drunk students home… Wait that would actually be great!” she said enthusiastically. “Sorry, I’m keeping you up. Good night sir.”

“Sure”, Keith said, “thanks again.”

She turned around and stopped, looking over at them one last time. “Bye Lucas”.

He lifted up his head from his uncle’s shoulder and looked at her, his face beaming with a smile. “Oh yeah, see you around Brooke.”

She chuckled and went back to her car, wondering if he would even be able to remember this night. Probably not. Should she bring it up at school, the next time she would see him?

Well, as it turned out, she never brought it up. They had kept living in the same town, going to the same school, attending the same lessons, and yet they barely talked to each other for another year. Then, and only then, did things start to change. 


	2. Sleepless nights

It all started with a rabbit.

A white-furred rabbit, that kept gracefully leaping and bouncing in front of her, as if it wanted to be caught. But for some reason, she would not budge, not even for a little bit. She would keep looking at it, as it went around her garden and eventually down the rabbit hole.

And then she would wake up.

Brooke had always been able to remember her dreams. She seemed to have been wired that way, unlike her best friend, Peyton, who never could. Their 5th grade teacher had told them one day that some people could remember their dreams, and some could not.

Most of her dreams were pleasant. Meadows, birds, the sea. Some were less pleasant: she would wake up in the middle of the night, and it would take her a full minute to realize that no psychopath had been chasing her in the street. Fortunately, these did not happen often.

Sometimes, she had recurring dreams: her teeth falling, someone close dying. These were sporadic; she had them only once every few years.

As far as she could remember, she had never had the same dream twice in a row. However, since the beginning of summer, she had started dreaming of a white rabbit. She had kept seeing it in her dreams, every single night, for the past two months.

At first, she hadn’t paid attention to it, but lately, it had become a source of frustration. She could not understand why she kept seeing that rabbit. It didn’t mean anything to her; she had never owned one, she had never even touched one before. And yet, she kept seeing it. But what baffled her the most was that she wasn’t even doing anything in her dream: she was sitting down on the ground and would just watch it running around her garden. Round, and round, and round, until she woke up.

Every night, for two months. Until the night before her first day as a senior. That night, she dreamt of the rabbit once again. Instead of staying passive, she finally got up on her feet and walked towards it. She stopped when she saw it freeze, its face turned to her, standing on its hind legs. It blinked several times, then turned around and slowly walked to a spot a few feet from them: a burrow. Moving at the same pace, she followed it, trying not to scare it away. It stopped before the hole in the ground and turned to her one last time. This time, she threw herself at it, and just as it was jumping in, she managed to grab its tail.

Her eyes flickered opened. She was looking at her ceiling and was obviously no longer in her garden, nor in her dream. She frowned and raised her hand in front of her, the one that had grabbed the rabbit’s tail. It wasn’t there anymore, obviously, yet she felt like she was still grasping its fur in her fingers.

For the first time in what seemed like ages, she woke up without the disappointment of the past mornings. She sat up straight, stretching her arms as far as she could, and reached for the water bottle on her bedside table. She had a mouthful and was surprised to feel something cold going down her throat. Her water had been cold last night when she had gone to bed, why was it still chilly eight hours later?

She wasn’t complaining, though. This summer, the heat had been unbearable in Tree Hill. Luckily, her parents had decided to rent a beach house in California, near L.A., and though temperatures had not been any different there, at least the sea made it more tolerable. When they had come home, two days ago, they had realized that things had not changed in two months. Usually, the weather would get colder in September, but this year seemed to be special.

Brooke got up and went straight to the bathroom. As she passed by her parents’ bedroom, she noticed they were both already up.

When she was dressed, she went downstairs, her bag swinging on her shoulder, and greeted her parents who were already in the kitchen having breakfast.

“Good morning Brooke,” her mother said with a strained face.

She had looked like that most summer, and apparently coming back to Tree Hill had not helped her. Her dark circles were deeper than ever; her mother had always had them, as far as Brooke could remember, but she had never seen them so dark before.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” she said, walking around the table to grab the coffee pot. “Did one of you come to my room last night?”

“I did,” her father said, looking up over the newspaper he had been reading. “Brought you some fresh water.”

“Thanks!” she said with a beaming smile. “But when did you do that? I didn’t hear you.”

“Oh, you were fast asleep. It was around 4.”

“4?” she repeated, raising her eyebrows. “What were you doing up at 4?”

Her father furtively looked at his wife before saying, “Couldn’t sleep.”

“But ─”

“What do you think you’re doing?” her mother cut her off, frowning at her.

Brooke froze, her hand midway in the air, holding a cup of coffee. Busted, she thought. Damn, she couldn’t even have a sip.

“But Mom, I didn’t sleep very well, and I have a student council meeting today, so I have to stay late at school ─”

“I don’t care,” she said curtly, “put your mug down.”

“Come on that’s unfair!” Brooke retorted. “I’m almost eighteen now!”

“Oh but you’re right, I forgot,” her mother said sarcastically, “of course since you’re almost eighteen, your body will magically reject the negative sides of caffeine. Put. It. Down.”

She sighed and threw a quick look at her father who had not moved an inch, his face still hidden by his reading. When she realized he would not be of any help, she caved in.

“Fine,” she mumbled, trying to hold in her anger. “I’m leaving.”

She quickly walked past them and went to the hall, stopping at the shoe rack to look at her reflection in the mirror, checking if her hair looked okay. She then heard her mother say, appalled, “Can’t you at least eat something before you go? Ted, will you please say something to her?”.

Brooke smirked; even without seeing him, she knew exactly what face he was making. He was probably doing his best not to roll his eyes.

“Brooke, listen to your mother,” she heard him say with a jaded, monotonous voice as she got out of her house.

On her way to school, she kept switching radio stations. Either she didn’t like its music, of it kept talking about the unusual heat wave lingering in North Carolina. In the end, she played a disc that Peyton had left in her car.

There was already quite a crowd when she reached the school’s parking lot. As she got out of her car, she heard someone eagerly shout her name. She turned around and noticed a familiar head riding a bicycle and zigzagging his way through the crowd, until he hit the brakes right next to her.

“Mouth!” she yelled in his ear as she hugged him.

“Wow, careful,” he said with a laugh, “or you’ll make us both fall.”

She let him go and accompanied him as he went to the bike rack.

“How was California?”

“Too short,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “It was really fun.”

“Didn’t you say you would try surfing?”

“Not surfing,” a female voice corrected from behind them, making them both turn to her. “Surfers.”

“Hi Peyton,” Mouth told her with a wide smile.

Brooke lightly punched her arm, looking offended. “Whatever, Mouth knows you’re lying, don’t you Mouth?” she asked him, turning to him.

“Well… It does sound like you,” he said hesitantly, making Peyton chuckle.

Brooke looked away with a pout, and suppressed a smile when Peyton put an arm around her shoulders, giving them a squeeze. “Alright Pres, I’m deeply sorry for tarnishing your image.”

Brooke pretended to think about it for a second. “Fine, I forgive you.”

“You know, Mouth, I think we’re very lucky to have such a kind-hearted president.”

“Yeah,” he added, “who knows what our school would have become if it weren’t for her?”

“Alright, now don’t overdo it,” Brooke said, rolling her eyes, making them both laugh.

The three of them walked to the entrance, Peyton and Mouth telling each other about their holidays. Mouth turned right to get to his locker and told them he would see them later. As the two girls kept going straight ahead, they had to make their way through a lot of students. First years, Brooke thought, did they always have to flock together? And while she was struggling to access her own locker, she noticed someone staring at them.

She turned her head to the blonde boy looking at them. A second later, his eyes darted away, and he appeared to be talking with his friend. Brooke stealthily looked at Peyton and saw that she hadn’t seen anything; it appeared that Lucas Scott had still not gotten over his crush on her best friend.

“Oh, I have something for you,” Peyton told her as she was putting away her books. She searched through her bag and got a paper out of it.

“A new P. Sawyer original?” she asked, taking the drawing in her hands. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” It was a rabbit. A white-furred rabbit drawn as he was hopping high in a garden.

“Well it’s your fault for telling me about it everyday for the past two months,” she shrugged, closing her locker door. “I had to draw it. Does it look like yours?”

“Quite spot on, but guess what? I finally caught it last night!”

Peyton threw her a surprised look. “Really? And then what happened?”

“Nothing, I just woke up.”

“And… that’s it? You’ve kept dreaming of that same freaking rabbit all summer, and talked about it _every_ single day, just to tell me that you’ve caught it─”

“Actually,” she clarified, “I barely grabbed its tail.”

“Ok, so you’ve just grabbed it and that’s it? You don’t want to know what happens next?”

Brooke frowned, bemused by what Peyton had just pointed out. She was right. She had kept dreaming of that rabbit, frustrated every morning by it, yet this morning when she had woken up, even though nothing really had happened in her dream, she had felt… at ease. She didn’t want to know what happened next because part of her believed that there would be nothing after that. She was just supposed to catch it.

“No. I think that’s just it.”

“All that suspense for nothing,” Peyton said with a chuckle. “You’re so weird sometimes.”

She gave her a nudge, “Come on, we don’t want to be late for homeroom.”

They hurried to their classroom; she thought she wouldn’t see a familiar face until her eyes landed on one of her oldest friends.

“Nate!” she said, going over to him. “Are you kidding me, four years in a row?”

“What can I say Brooke, I keep begging Turner every year to be with you,” he winked, making her laugh.

She turned to the boy that he had been talking to, “Hi Lucas.”

“Hi,” he said evasively, turning around to take a seat.

She noticed Nathan had a brief frown. “So, how was the camp?”

“Huh?” he said, apparently confused.

“High Flyers? You never told me how it went.”

“Oh, it was ok,” he said with a dismissive shrug.

Before Brooke could ask any further, their teacher arrived, and they had to sit down. She went to the seat behind Lucas, and looked at Peyton who was on her left.

“Hey, remember how Nathan kept telling us about his basketball camp since he was five?”, she whispered to her.

“So?”

“He didn’t **─** ”

She suddenly stopped when she heard their teacher taking attendance.

Something was definitely off. She had heard about this basketball summer program for almost as long as she had known Nathan. And now that he had gone there, nothing, no detail, just a “it was okay”? High Flyers was a dream come true to him, why wasn’t he more excited about it? Was it just disappointment from being back to school? But thinking back, this summer, he had been unusually evasive in his texts on how things were going…

Well, she would have to deal with that later. For now, she tried to focus on what their teacher was saying, taking notes on the meetings they would have with the guidance counselor.

She turned around quickly, suddenly feeling a warm breath on her nape. Confused, she remembered that she was at the back of the room and no one was behind her. She turned to their teacher again, but she could still feel it. It was soft, and somehow faint, but it was there. Mechanically, she touched her bare nape with her right hand, massaging it.

As she did that, she started feeling a tingle in her toes and fingers. First at their tips, and then it was progressively moving up her feet and hands. She looked down at her hands, spread out on her desk, and frowned. What the hell was going on?

A buzzing sound came ringing into her ears. Once again, it was quite faint and from her classmate’s absence of reaction, she knew she was the only one bothered by it.

This all lasted for a minute or so, making her wonder whether or not she should call for help, but figured it would just stop. She was probably just dehydrated or something, right?

And then, even though she had been perfectly awake just a second ago, she started feeling drowsy; her eyelids seemed like they weighed tons. She struggled to keep them open, to stay focused. Until she couldn’t.

When she opened her eyes again, it was all gone. The tingle, the buzzing sound. But she could still feel the warmth on her nape. And most importantly, she was in her bed, naked.

She closed her eyes, appreciating the cool bedding she was lying on. It just felt so good, after last night’s smothering heat. She let out a small sigh, which turned into a gasp when she felt something on her neck. Someone was kissing her nape.

Though it had startled her at first, it did not take long before she thought that it felt quite delightful.

As she was lying on her side, she felt a hand moving her hair away, a mouth kissing her neck, her earlobe, her shoulder; another hand was on her stomach, drawing circles with a finger. She let out another sigh, which was apparently taken as a good sign: the finger stopped and started tracing a line, from her navel, to her hipbone, her thighs, and then…

She turned around to take a look at the one behind her, opened her eyes, and saw Lucas Scott grinning at her.

She screamed; it was a scream of horror, louder than she thought herself capable. It startled him as he stared at her with a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Hey, what is **─** ”

She didn’t let him finish his sentence; instead, she punched him as hard as she could in the guts.“Get off me!” she shouted at him, pushing him away and fumbling with the bed sheets to cover herself up. When she managed to do so, she got off the bed and stood up, looking down at him with fury in her eyes, her right hand tightly holding the sheets around her.

Lucas sat up, massaging the area where she had hit him, scowling at her. “What the hell was that for?” he asked, indignant.

“What the hell are you doing in my room?” she asked back on the same tone.

“Your room?” he repeated with a frown, his anger quickly fading away. “Brooke **─** ”

“No! Don’t you dare move!” she shouted. Her eyes still fixed on him, she grabbed her bedside lamp with her left hand and held it high above her head, in what she hoped would be a threatening pose.

Wait… Something was off. Instead of feeling a smooth metallic surface in her hand, she felt something with curves. She looked at her lamp, lowering her arm to examine it closely, and realized that it wasn’t her lamp at all. It was a white rabbit-shaped lamp, with ears sticking out of the shade.

She froze, and then finally paid attention to her surroundings. She wasn’t wearing her bedsheets around her; the walls had unfamiliar blue shades; behind her was a walk-in closet she had never seen before and there was a poster on the nearest door representing a band she didn’t know.

“Brooke?”

She suddenly turned to him, remembering he was still there. He had done as asked and not moved an inch. The only difference was that now he looked extremely concerned. And that was when it hit her: he was naked. Fully naked, nothing to cover him up. She felt a rush of blood to her cheeks and looked away at a bookshelf that, without any surprise, wasn’t hers either.

“Brooke?” he repeated.

Don’t look at him, she thought, don’t look at him. “Can you wear something?”

“Huh?” he replied, sounding confused.

“You’re naked, Lucas.”

“And that freaks you out because… Oh,” he said, his tone suddenly more serious. “Oh. Oh no.”

She had to look at him, because she couldn’t understand what was going on. So she did, and saw that he was now freaking out too, his eyes darting fast around him until they landed on his shorts lying on the ground behind him. He bent over the bed to catch them, giving Brooke an opportunity to peek at his bare bottom for just a second; she quickly looked away when he turned back to her, his shorts on. “Oh god, I’m so sorry Brooke, I didn’t mean to scare you, I never thought it would happen when we’re, erm… Oh no, wait, is this the first time?”

Nothing made sense. She was in a room she didn’t know, with an almost naked Lucas Scott sitting on the bed, apologizing profusely for… Well, for what exactly?

“The… The first time?” she stuttered, her face still very red. “What are you talking about?”

He frowned, looking more and more mortified. “Look,” he said, moving a bit towards her “I know this must be weird but **─** ”

“I said don’t move!” she shouted, raising the lamp above her head. Confused or not, she would not hesitate to strike him.

“Wow, ok,” he said, freezing on the spot, his arms raised in defense. “It’s okay, I won’t do anything to you. Could you please just put my lamp down, you’ve broken the last one already, remember?”

This was just getting more puzzling by the second. “What?” she blurted out.

“Oh no, wait, so that was after this… Sorry,” he said with an apologetic smile that startled her, “I don’t have all the details. So anyway, erm… What’s today’s date?”

She stood still and silent, feeling as if her brain had given up on her.

“What’s the date, Brooke?” he asked with a voice so soft, that she automatically answered.

“September 10th.”

And suddenly it looked like something had dawned on him. “So it is the first time.”

“First time that what?”

“That… Wait, no, I can’t tell you,” he stopped himself, shaking his head.

“Why not? What are you talking about? And where are we exactly?” Even with her best scowl, he didn’t give in. He looked uncertain, but he still wouldn’t give in. “Well say something Lucas!”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“I was asked not to. And anyway, you’ll figure it out on your own… Well, almost on your own.”

She must have been drugged. That was the only possible explanation she could find. She had been drugged, abducted, and thrown into a parallel universe in which Lucas not only said more than three words to her, but was also very comfortable around her. Too comfortable.

And then she felt a pressure on her left arm; she looked at it and saw nothing, yet she felt as if someone was shaking her arm. She frowned, just as she started hearing muffled voices around her, and when she looked around, saw that there was only Lucas.

“Brooke? Are you okay?” he anxiously asked.

“I, erm…” She frowned. The words wouldn’t come out properly. She dropped the lamp on the bed and looked at her hands, a tingle appearing on her fingertips and then down to her wrists. She could also feel it in her feet. The muffled voices were replaced by a quiet, buzzing sound and suddenly, she felt groggy again. She had to fight to keep her eyes open and the last thing she saw before closing them, was Lucas jumping out of the bed to catch her before she could fall.

She opened her eyes. Peyton was on her left, gently shaking her arm. Brooke’s head was resting on her desk. When she noticed it, she sat up and looked around. Every single person in the classroom was staring at her. But the one standing closest to her was their teacher, looking down at her, shaking his head.

“Looks like Miss Davis didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

“I… I’m sorry,” she muttered with a hoarse voice.

That seemed enough for him; he strode back to the other end of the classroom and kept talking about different meetings. Her classmates kept looking at her with curiosity for a few seconds, so she had to look down at her desk until they turned their attention back to the teacher.

What the hell had just happened? Did she just have an erotic dream about…

Her head shot up as she remembered that he was sitting right in front of her. She sighed with relief when she saw that he too had turned his attention to the front of the room. But she could feel her whole face becoming hot, as she pictured him naked in that bed, lying behind her and kissing her.

Well, she couldn’t pretend otherwise: she had definitely just had an erotic dream about Lucas.

“What’s wrong?” Peyton whispered next to her.

She turned to face her and shrugged. “I just fell asleep. I think it’s the heat, it made me drowsy.”

Her friend squinted at her, a suspicious look on her face. Brooke looked away, pretending to focus on the rest of their homeroom.

She tried to evade her until lunch break, when they gathered with the other cheerleaders outside, around a table. Brooke tried to stall as much as possible, going around the group, greeting everyone and reminding them of their first training later that day. Eventually, she had to sit down to eat and of course Peyton sat right next to her.

“So, what happened to you in homeroom? Don’t tell me it was nothing, your face was all red.”

“Well,” she said, hesitating, “it was embarrassing to fall asleep during our first period of our first day.”

“Please,” Peyton said with a snort, “it takes much more than that to embarrass you. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Brooke looked down at her plate, wondering how she would get out of this one. “I had another dream.”

“When?”

“In class,” Brooke said, confused. When else would it be?

“But how? You fell asleep for like ten seconds. I’m not even sure that counts as falling asleep.”

“No, it was longer than that.”

“It was ten seconds,” she insisted. “You bumped your head on your desk, everyone heard it, then Preston came to see you and you opened your eyes.”

She frowned; no that could not be. It should have lasted at least a few minutes.

“Alright,” Peyton said with a shrug, “so you had a dream. What was it about?”

“I ─” She stopped, looking furtively at a table to their right, where another group had gathered. “I don’t know. It’s all fuzzy now.”

She tried to ignore her friend’s quizzical look by focusing on her food. She had just lied to her best friend, and she did not like it one bit.

It wasn’t fuzzy at all. That was usually what happened with her dreams: as hours went by, they would become more and more hazed until she could barely remember them. Unless it was a dream that she kept having, like the one with the rabbit. At first, she had dismissed it, but with the days going by and the dream coming back every night, she had been able to remember more and more vividly what it was about.

But right now, 4 hours after she had had her dream about Lucas, she could still clearly remember it. She could see every detail of the room, the closet, the walls. She could still see Lucas’ body. And she could even still feel the touch of his lips and hands on her skin, and how it had made her feel.

Her eyes drifted to the real him: he was talking with his friends, the ones he had been hanging out with since forever, Mouth included. She frowned when she noticed that his best friend was missing; where was she? Haley James was usually always around him. 

But the real question was, how accurate was her imagination? Did Lucas really look like what she had dreamed? Well, that was possible, since she had already helped him change his clothes, a year ago. But she hadn’t really paid much attention to his build, she had been too busy washing the vomit off his shirt. And at that time, she had been less self-conscious, since she had been fully clothed. Maybe, on an unconscious level, she still remembered what he looked like under his t-shirt. But under his pants? That was definitely her imagination working.

She must have stared too hard, because he eventually frowned and turned his head to her. She looked away as quickly as she could, but deep down knew he had noticed her. Great, just what she needed.

She got up, startling her group, and mumbled something about not being hungry anymore before rushing out.

She went back inside the school and slowed down when she saw that she was alone.

Why Lucas, out of everyone?

She had barely talked to him in the three years they had spent so far in high school. The only real interaction they had had was last year, at Nathan’s party. She had tried, the next day, to talk to him, but he had suddenly become extremely elusive. He would barely talk when she was around, and most of the time would just leave the room, even if he had been in the middle of a conversation with Nathan or Mouth.

When she had decided to run for president, she had found Mouth to be a huge help, with… Well, with pretty much everything. That was when they had really started hanging out together, and she had thought that maybe, since he and Lucas were really close, she would be able to approach him. But it had not changed a thing in his behavior. Eventually, she had realized that he was just still in love with Peyton.

There was no other explanation, was there? She knew there was no way he could remember their time together at Nathan’s, he had been way too drunk for that. So, that meant he avoided her for another reason. And he had just been rejected by Peyton, the girl that she was always hanging out with. So, it wasn’t really her that he was avoiding, it was Peyton.

And now, a year later, things had not changed. She sometimes even wondered if he didn’t hate her, if he didn’t believe that she had told Peyton not to go out with him. But she had done just the opposite: after Nathan’s party, she had tried to advocate for him around Peyton. But her best friend’s decision was definite. She had explained that she was sorry for Lucas but that didn’t change the fact that she had never seen him that way.

She was walking by the school theatre when she remembered something about her dream: the rabbit shaped lamp. Another rabbit… What was that supposed to mean? She wasn’t much into fortune-telling and omens, but it kept showing up in her dreams, so it had to mean something, right?

“Brooke?”

She turned around, dragged away from her thoughts, and smiled as she saw Nathan walking to her. “Hi. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, erm…” He stopped next to her. “I was eating in the gym.”

“On your own?” Brooke asked with a frown.

“Yeah, I was practicing.”

It seemed strange at first, but she brushed it off quickly. Nathan was definitely the kind to practice even during lunch breaks. He was passionate about basketball; as far as Brooke could remember, he had always been this way.

“You’re okay? You surprised us all this morning.”

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about that, I was just a little tired. So,” she said, trying to change the subject, “how is life without your dad?”

This brought a huge grin on his lips. “Awesome. It’s not perfect, because I still have to talk to him sometimes and he insists on having dinner together once a week, but Brooke, it feels so good to have him out of my life!”

She chuckled, “Well I’m glad you take it so well. Your dad was always an ass to you.”

After a thoughtful silent, he said, “Yeah, and to Luke too. It’s funny how our hatred for him actually got us closer. Brooke, are you sure you’re okay?”

He had probable noticed her face going red. “Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just the heat wave. So anyway, how was your camp? You kept talking about it all year and I get no detail at all?”

“It was fine,” he said with a shrug.

“Just fine? That’s it?”

“Yeah, I mean it was great. How was L.A.?”

She hesitated, very aware that he was just changing the subject, and then recalled that she had done the same twice in the past two minutes. “Really nice. My dad loved it so much that he’s trying to buy the beach house where we stayed. I, erm, heard him talk about it to my mom.”

He nudged her, chuckling. “Eavesdropping is a bad habit, Brooke.”

“Yeah, well I don’t really have a choice. Lately, they’ve been whispering a lot around me. I think they want to move to L.A.”

“Why does it sound like a bad thing?”

She sighed, “Because I like my house in Tree Hill. I don’t want them to sell it.”

“You’re gonna move out eventually. Didn’t you want to go to NYU next year?”

“I still do. But where would I stay if I want to come back here?”

“Hmm, let me guess,” he said, pretending to think hard about it, “I think Peyton wouldn’t mind taking you in.”

“I know,” she said, holding back a laughter, “but it wouldn’t be the same.”

“And if by any chance, Peyton kicked you out, you know you can always come to my place. My mom loves you, she thinks you’re the only reason I didn’t turn into a jackass like my dad.”

“I’m pretty sure she had a lot to do in that,” she said with another laugh, “but yeah, she’s probably right.”

The rest of the day turned out to be torture for Brooke. The universe had seemingly decided to punish her.

She had literature with Lucas and Haley. She tried hard not to look at him, but how was she supposed to do that, when she kept reminiscing about the dream she’d had? At some point, she noticed that Haley was glancing over her shoulder, in her direction; she buried her head down on her paper, forcing herself to stop staring. Lucas had already noticed her at lunch; she did not need his best friend to tell him that she was doing the same in class.

Then her cheerleader training came. Since it was too hot to train outside, they were asked to go to the gym, with the basketball team. This time, she managed not to turn to Lucas every five minutes, as she was too busy yelling orders at her squad. She may have overdone it though, as Peyton pointed out at the end of their session. But she didn’t care, as long as she could take her mind off Lucas, she didn’t mind being a tyrant.

As she had told her mother earlier that day, she still had to stay at school for her first student council meeting. And as she had told her, she was getting tired by the minute. That cup of coffee could have really helped her, it could have even prevented her from falling asleep in class this morning!

Everyone in the council was relieved when she told them that this would be a short meeting. They went over the main points for the year to come, the election that would be held in a few months and the transition they would have to prepare for the next council.

They all left the room one by one, leaving her to read the schedule they had prepared for this year. She just wanted to make sure that it was perfect before handing it out to Principal Turner. And she still had to make sure they had DWNotI members volunteering for Nathan’s party. She should have asked them earlier; most of them were basketball players. But she had been trying so hard not to approach Lucas… She took out her phone and texted Nathan, asking him to check if he had at least three drivers for Saturday night.

Usually, Nathan hosted his party at the end of summer, but this year, since he had been away at camp, he had postponed it for a week.

When she received his positive response, she figured she could go home now.

She locked the meeting room and when she got out of school, noticed that the sky had turned a dark shade of gray. She hurried to her car as she heard the rumble of thunder in the distance. She inserted her car key, turned it, and nothing happened. Well, something did happen, a strange noise she had never heard before came out of her car. It didn’t start, it wouldn’t start no matter how many times she was turning the key.

“Oh come on!” she shouted, punching her wheel, accidentally making a horn blast.

She got out of her car, slamming the door behind her and looked around; no one was there. She took out her phone and texted her father to check if he was still at work; he didn’t reply. What was she going to do now? She looked up at the sky with a worried look. There was definitely a storm coming soon.

“Need any help?”

She turned around to face Haley, who was standing behind her, her bicycle on her side and her head tilted as she was looking at the car.

“Oh thank god you’re still here! Wait, what are you still doing here?”

“I was at the tutoring center. So, what’s wrong with your car?”

“Oh, erm… It won’t start. Do you think you can help me?”

“No, I don’t know anything about cars…” she said, shaking her head. She looked genuinely sorry, and even though it didn’t help her one bit, it did make Brooke feel better. “Oh, but I can call Luke, he’ll know what to do!”

“No!” Brooke said a bit too loudly. “I mean, you don’t have to bother him with this, I can just go home and **─** ”

“Don’t worry, he won’t mind at all,” she said, already taking out her phone.

“I’m serious, I’ll find another way!”

But it was already too late. Haley brought her phone to her ear, and somehow looked very excited about this whole mess.

“Luke, are you free right now? I’ve got a car situation. Well no, obviously, it’s for, erm…” She looked stealthily at Brooke, “For a friend. Why, are you gonna come depending on who that is? Alright, then get over here, she’s on the school parking lot.” She hung up, then looked back at Brooke. “He’ll be here in five minutes.” She hopped on her bike.

“Wait,” she said, alarmed, “where are you going?”

“Sorry but I can’t stay, I’m already late for my shift.” Brooke couldn’t help but think that she didn’t sound sincere at all this time. “But don’t worry, Luke will definitely come.”

That was precisely what she was worrying about, as she watched Haley ride away from her. She looked around but still saw no one. Maybe… Maybe she could just leave? That way she wouldn’t have to see him. Haley never gave her name, so maybe… No, she couldn’t possibly do that. Not to mention, with the way the sky was growling right now, it would start raining hard any minute.

As she waited, she started having butterflies in her stomach. She was nervous, but at the same time felt somehow tingly.

She was starting to think that maybe he had changed his mind, when she saw his car pulling over the parking lot. It stopped some feet away from her, close enough that she could see the confusion spread across his face.

She waved at him with an awkward smile, and he seemed to figure out what was going out.

Lucas got out of his car and walked up to her. “You’re the friend in need?”

“Yeah,” she said, averting her eyes. “That’s me. I don’t know why she called me that though.”

“I think I know,” he murmured with a groan. “So, what’s wrong?”

She motioned towards her car. “It won’t start anymore.”

He nodded, looking intensely at the car. Wait a second, was he also avoiding meeting her eyes?

She watched as he went to her car, opened its hood and bent over, rummaging through it. She was busy detailing his biceps when he leaned back and shook his head at her.

“The transmission belt is broken.”

“English, please?”

He chuckled, which startled her. “It means I can’t do anything right now, it needs to be changed. My uncle can do that but he’ll need to order a part.”

“What? So I can’t use it tonight?”

“No, but I’ll call the garage. They’ll tow it away and take care of it.”

“Oh… Okay. I mean, thank you, you know, for coming.”

“Sure,” he shrugged, pulling out his phone to call his uncle. 

She didn’t listen to what he was saying, her mind fixated on this terrible day she was having. That was just what she needed, her car breaking down. She jumped when she heard the thunder, this time much louder than before. It was definitely getting closer.

“Alright,” Lucas said, hanging up and turning to her, “they’ll come get it. Were you going home?”

Why was he asking? “Yeah,” she said nonetheless.

“I’ll drop you off, it’s on my way.”

“But you don’t have to, you’ve already **─** ”

“With this storm coming?” he asked, pointing to the sky. “Peyton will kill me if I leave you here. And Nathan too. Come on.”

She hesitated for another second before following him in his car. She didn’t know why, but when he had mentioned Peyton, the butterflies in her stomach had suddenly disappeared. Why did she feel so gloomy? It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that he would want to be in Peyton’s good graces. 

As he started driving, something caught her eye; a small object hanging from the rear-view mirror. Her heart started racing fast, as she kept staring at the lucky rabbit’s foot dangling back and forth.

“That’s from my uncle,” Lucas said, “he’s very superstitious.”

“Oh.” she said hoarsely.

For a few minutes, it was the most awkward ride ever. Neither of them seemed to know what to talk about. They both jolted when it started pouring outside. It was raining down so hard that Lucas had to slow down as he couldn’t properly see the road anymore.

It got easier when he turned on the radio: at least there was something to occupy her mind. She didn’t know whose song it was, but it was nice. She closed her eyes, her head resting against the car window, and found that the sound of the song combined with the pouring rain was very soothing.

“Do you like it?”

She opened her eyes swiftly and looked at him. He was squinting at the road, struggling to see it clearly. She noticed that he was driving even more slowly than a minute ago.

“The song.” he clarified when she didn’t answer. “You were humming.”

Was she? “Oh, I didn’t realize I was. Erm, well I don’t even know that song.”

“Are you kidding?” He sounded extremely surprised, almost offended. “That’s Norah Jones.”

“Never heard of her,” she shrugged.

“I didn’t know that was possible,” he said with a quiet laugh, still looking at the road. Good, that way he couldn’t see her cheeks turning pink. Really Brooke, because he was laughing? Was that the effect of the dream still lingering on her?

“You sound just like Peyton.”

“Yeah, she is a music freak.” he replied, with another chuckle. 

“She really misses her work at Tric. It, erm… It was really nice of you to introduce her to your mother.”

About a year ago, Lucas had come to Peyton to talk to her about a project her mother had. She wanted to open an all-age nightclub and needed someone to help her with the music. Of course, Peyton had been thrilled about it and had accepted right away. She had kept busy with it most of last year. Unfortunately, during summer, Tric had gone through serious water damage and needed some renovation work. Peyton had told her it would not reopen until October.

“Oh you know, my mom asked me if I knew someone who could be in charge of the music and, well, anyone in our school would have thought of her.”

Why was he dismissing what he had done for her? At that time, when Peyton had told her about this project, she had thought it would be a good way for Lucas to get closer to her. But somehow, it had never happened.

He pulled her from her thoughts once again. “Come away with me.”

“Huh?”

“That’s the name of the song.”

“Oh,” Brooke said, listening closely as it was ending. “It’s a really nice song.”

She couldn’t help but smile and stole a glance at Lucas; he was wearing the same smile on his face, although still trying hard to drive his way through the rain.

Suddenly, the rest of the drive wasn’t so awkward anymore. They didn’t say much after that, but it didn’t seem to bother either of them. Brooke even felt a pang of disappointment when he pulled over her driveway. Yes, she was definitely still reeling from her dream.

“Thanks again,” she told him with a grin.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, shutting off the engine. “Looks like things are reversed now.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, compared to last year, when you drove─”

“You remember!” she shouted, making him startle.

“Erm, yeah, but─”

“But you were so drunk!”

That made him laugh. “I know, the morning after that was hell. But I still remember most of that night. Except maybe the fact that you drove me back, Keith told me that.”

“But, you…” she mumbled, stunned. “You never said anything, you even avoided me after that!” Why was her tone so accusatory? It wasn’t such a big deal, was it? 

“Well yeah,” he said, raising his eyebrows, “you did see me at my worst. It was embarrassing.”

“I guess so,” she murmured, and then couldn’t help but snicker. “Sorry, I just remembered how you dropped right in your puke.”

“See!” he said, motioning at her with both hands.

“But seriously, that’s why you’ve been avoiding me all this time?”

His smile faded a bit as his eyes suddenly looked more intense. “Well, that, and erm, there was something else too. See, I─”

They both jumped when they heard a thumping noise on the car. Brooke looked to her right and saw her mother under an umbrella, struggling to keep it open.

“Mom?” Brooke said, startled, as she lowered the window for an inch. “What are you doing outside?”

“I figured you didn’t have an umbrella and that’s why you were waiting in the car. Whose car is this anyway?”

“Oh, Mom, this is Lucas,” she said, pointing at him. “My car broke down, so he drove me home.”

“That was very nice of you.” She didn’t give him time to reply, “Now Brooke, will you please get in the house before I drown out here?”

“Right,” she said, lifting her bag from the car floor. “Thanks again Lucas.”

She hurried out of the car and noticed he looked disappointed. As she rushed into her house, her mother holding her close under the umbrella, she wondered what he was about to say.

Well, she had a hunch on that. Two hunches.

Either he was about to say that he was still in love with Peyton, and that was why he was so nervous around her. Or, that he had hated her for a while because for some reason, he had believed she had discouraged Peyton from going out with him. In both cases, she didn’t want to hear about it; for once, she was glad about her mother’s awful timing.

Once she got inside, she was taken aback: her father was sitting on the couch, reading what looked like work paper.

“You’re already home?” she asked, taken aback.

That almost never happened; her dad would usually barely get home on time for dinner.

He stood up, “I got off work early. How was school?”

“Surreal.”

“That boy was very nice,” her mother said from behind, “driving you home. Have I seen him before?”

She turned to her. “He’s Nathan’s brother.”

“Oh, wait, is he Karen Roe’s son?”

“Yeah, his mom owns the Karen’s Café. His uncle is gonna fix my car.”

“His uncle?” her mother asked.

“Your car?” her father asked almost at the same time.

“Erm, yeah,” she said, turning to him, “it’s down. That’s why I texted you.”

“Oh right, I forgot to answer. I was busy, with erm… Work.”

“Anyway, Lucas said it had something to do with a transfusion thingy ─”

“You mean transmission? Like a transmission belt?”

“Yeah, I think that’s it. And he said his uncle could fix it.” She turned to her mother. “He owns a workshop.”

“Well you should get him something.”

“You mean money? I am going to─”

“No, not to the uncle. To that boy, Lucas. You have to thank him.”

“I already have.”

“I mean,” she said, getting impatient, “give him something as a thank you, like, I don’t know, flowers.”

Brooke snickered at that. “You want me give Lucas flowers?”

“Fine, maybe not that, but… What does he like?”

“I don’t know, Mom, I don’t really know him.”

She did know him, though. At least, she knew he had two passions: reading and playing basketball. She had always seen him with a book in his hands. But to buy him something… No, that was too much. She had already said her thanks.

After dinner, she went upstairs to her room. As usual, she sat down at her desk, opened the bottom left drawer and took out her diary.

It had been a long time since she had written such a long entry. The main reason was that she had written in details her dream about Lucas. She stopped after a few lines, remembering something he had told her in his car, about the song they had been listening to. She took out her phone, put on her earphones and opened her music app. She typed “Norah Jones Come away with me” and selected the album. When the music started, she felt content enough to keep writing.

When she went to bed later that night, she fell asleep quickly; with the storm, the heat had disappeared.

From that night on, she never dreamt of the rabbit ever again.


	3. Strange transmissions

“You’re not going?”

Brooke turned to Nathan, who had kindly volunteered to be her driver. To be fair, she hadn’t really left him much of a choice. “I am. But maybe I’m too early,” she said, looking at the building standing in front of them.

“What time did he say your car would be ready?”

She shrugged, “He just said I could come this morning.”

She looked away at the parking lot, her eyes landing on the sign that read “Keith Scott Body shop”. She was racking her brains, trying to recall exactly what Lucas had told her. She had been so confused by their conversation from the day before and by the dream she had had about him, that when he had approached her the next morning to tell her that her car was being taken care of, she had barely listened. She had been too focused on keeping her cool to properly pay attention to what he had told her. He had said Saturday morning, that she knew for sure. But the time?

“So… What are you waiting for?” he asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.

For a phone call telling her that unfortunately, her car wasn’t ready this morning and that she would not have to run into Lucas again. The boy she had dreamed about and who had a major crush on her best friend. “Nothing,” she replied, opening the car door on her side. “Thanks for the ride Nate.”

“See you tonight! Oh wait,” he said, making her stop midway, one foot in his car, the other on the street. “Can you ask Sawyer to bring her special mixtape? The one we used last year?”

“Sure. She’s probably upgraded it since...” Her voice trailed off when she noticed a familiar face walking out of the workshop and straight to them. “Uh oh.”

“What?” Nathan asked. He followed her gaze; his face fell as he recognized the man who was coming to greet them.

They both shared a look and got out of the car as Dan Scott, Nathan’s father, was approaching.

“Dad,” he told him warily. “What are you doing here?”

Brooke went to stand next to Nathan just as his father stopped in front of them. “Brooke, long time no see.”

“Hi Mr Scott,” she said with a polite smile.

“What are you doing here?” Nathan repeated.

His father looked at him with a smirk. “Can’t I visit my big brother? Why are you here anyway?”

“Nathan’s dropping me off,” she answered. “I’m getting my car back.”

“How nice of you, giving a job to the local workers in need.”

“Dad…”

“And how are you, Nathan? I haven’t seen you since you came back from your little trip.”

His little what?

Nathan shrugged, looking away from his father, his arms crossed against his chest. “I’m fine.”

“Still no regrets? You do know that it was your last chance at getting in High Flyers?”

Wait, what?

She turned to Nathan, who now looked pallid. So, that was why he had not seemed thrilled at all by his basketball camp. He had simply not gone. But why was he pretending otherwise?

Nathan looked back at his father, “Dad, I’m not deaf, I heard it the last twenty times you told me.”

Dan snickered, “You’ll regret that decision, son.”

“We’ll see.”

They were both staring back at each other with dark looks on their faces. Brooke had to say something, make him leave, “Erm, sorry to interrupt Mr Scott, but we really need to get my car now.”

“Oh, right. Have a nice day, then,” he told them with a little bow, that Brooke figured was not a form of respect at all.

Once he was out of sight, Nathan finally relaxed and let out a long sigh, leaning back on his car. “Thanks for that.”

She nudged him, “You’re welcome.”

“Alright, I can go now,” he said, whirling around to get back in his car.

“Wait a minute!” she said with a frown, shutting the door just as he was opening it. “What was that about? You didn’t go to the camp?”

He let out another sigh, then faced her. “No, I didn’t.”

“So where─”

“I can’t tell you, Brooke. And I need you not to say anything to anyone, not even Peyton.”

Her frown got deeper; what was he hiding? Nathan had never been the kind to have any secrets, he was usually quite an open book. She noticed how unusually anguished he looked.

“Fine, I won’t tell anyone. But you owe me.”

He grinned at her, “Thanks! I have to go now, I’m already late for training.”

She watched as he left the parking lot, then looked back at the building in front of her.

When she entered the workshop, she was surprised by its size. From the outside, it looked like a relatively small place, but it was in fact very spacious. There were several cars around the room, most of them had someone working on them. She scanned the place and was relieved to see that Lucas wasn’t around. It looked like she had been right in thinking that the sooner she came here, the lesser she was likely to see him.

She walked to what appeared to be an office door and knocked on it three times. A male voice told her to come in.

It was a small room with a desk, a couple of chairs, a huge cork board on the wall, and a few shelves. A man, who looked no older than forty, was sitting behind it, looking at his computer screen from above his glasses, his eyes quickly going from left to right as if he was reading something. He looked just the same as when she had last met him, minus the bathrobe.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked, not lifting his eyes from the screen.

“Mr Scott? My name is Brooke Davis, I came to─”

He suddenly jolted from his chair, startling her. “Brooke!” he exclaimed, getting up from his chair and walking around the desk to shake her hand vigorously. “Of course, Lucas said you’d be coming this morning. How are you since last time?”

“You remember me?” she asked, stunned.

“Do I remember the poor girl who had to drive Lucas home on the night he was hammered?” He winked at her, “Definitely.”

She laughed, “You looked so sleepy back then, I didn’t think you’d recognize me.”

“Oh, but I do. Anyway, your car is almost ready, I just need to check a few things first. Do you mind waiting here? It will only take a minute.”

“Sure, I can wait.”

He left the office, leaving its door open. She looked at the chairs and hesitated, before deciding to keep standing. She looked around and noticed that there were a few pictures pinned to the board. She glanced back and since no one was watching her, got closer to the board so she could have a look at the photos.

One of them showed Keith and whom she guessed were his employees, drinking beers together around a barbecue.

Her eyes were caught by a picture with a little blonde boy; she couldn’t help but smile as she recognized Lucas. He must have been no more than six and he was boastfully presenting a fresh fish with both hands. It wasn’t very big as he could hold it with ease, but nonetheless he looked extremely proud of his catch.

The photo right below this one showed Keith and Lucas’s mother, Karen, hugging and smiling brightly. She knew they had a complicated history with Dan, but in the past two years they had gotten together. According to Nathan, Lucas had been waiting for that day his whole life.

“She’s ready.”

She jumped and made a sudden about-turn to see Keith, standing in the doorway, lifting her car keys in front of him.

She followed him out of the office and walked behind him as he crossed the workshop. She could see from afar that her car was parked right at the entrance and was waiting for her. However, instead of going straight for it, Keith stopped in his tracks and turned right. He led her to a car that was not hers, and before she could ask him why they were here and not next to her own car, he tapped three times on the hood.

Brooke looked down at a pair of legs coming out from below the car. Why did Keith want to talk to a mechanic? Was there something wrong with her car after all? She kept watching as a pair of hands came out and held the car so that the rest of the body could creep out, only to stop abruptly when said mechanic saw them. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Lucas. And here she thought she had managed to avoid him.

“Brooke?” He sounded surprised as he struggled to get up from the car creeper he was lying on. When he did manage to do so, he swiftly looked at his uncle, then back at her and asked, “You’re already here? I thought I said 10 am.”

So, he really had told her a specific time. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” He looked… different. His hair was a mess, half of his t-shirt was coming out of his pants and he had grease stains on his left cheek. In other words, he looked really hot.

“Keith, did you check what I─”

“Yes I did, and you did a great job. There you go Brooke,” he told her, handing her out the keys, “she’s good as new, thanks to Lucas.”

“Thanks,” she said to the blonde boy, painfully aware of the slight pink shade her cheeks were getting. She turned back to face Keith, getting her check book out of her purse. “So, how much─”

“Oh no,” Keith said, raising his hands at her and shaking his head, “you can put that away.”

“What?”

“Well yeah, Luke said─” He stopped as Lucas suddenly suffered from a coughing fit. “Well, erm, you don’t have to pay me since it was Lucas who did all the work.”

She frowned, then glanced at her classmate. “Fine. So I’ll pay you then.”

“What?" Lucas asked in surprise. "No, you don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do,” she said with a firm tone.

To her surprise, he didn’t lose countenance, “I’m not taking your money, Brooke.”

“Then how am I supposed to─”

“Sorry, but I have to get back to work.” He didn’t wait for her reply, got on his creeper and disappeared back under the car. She looked at Keith, but when she saw his amused look, she knew he wouldn’t be of much help.

“Fine. Thanks again,” she told him before storming off.

Once in her car, she realized that she was mad at Lucas. Why wasn’t he taking her money? Now she owed him. And she didn’t want to owe him, because that meant running into him again, which led to this weird, tingling feeling she was having in her stomach and then to erotic dreams about him. She had to get him something.

As she drove back home, she admitted to herself that there was another reason why she felt uneasy. She knew why he hadn’t taken her money. It seemed quite obvious, now that she thought about it. He had probably hoped that she would tell Peyton about his charitable gesture and that she would maybe change her mind about him. What she didn’t understand was why that made her feel uneasy.

Well, it was probably for the same reason why she hadn’t told her best friend about her dream; this whole situation was just too strange. As long as she didn’t know how to feel about it, she could not tell Peyton any of it.

Now, how could she repay him? Her mother had told her earlier this week that she could buy him something. She could perhaps get him a book. It seemed to her like the safest choice when it came to Lucas. But she wasn’t much of a reader; how was she supposed to pick something he would like? Or even something he had not read before?

Just as she drove by her neighbourhood, she turned around. If she recalled correctly, she had seen Haley work at Karen’s Café on Saturday mornings. If there was one person who knew Lucas, it had to be her.

She had been right. When she entered the Café, Haley was behind the counter, writing something down as she was talking on the phone. Brooke hesitated for a second, but eventually walked over to her.

“And then 50. Okay but doesn’t that make it 60 total?” she asked on the phone with a frown. She looked up at Brooke, “Sorry I’ll take your order in a min **─** Brooke?”

“Hi.”

“What are **─** No, I’m not talking to you. Can I call you back later? Sure, thanks,” she said, hanging up. “Hi,” she said still looking surprised, “did you get your car back?”

“I just did, yeah. Thanks again, by the way, for helping me that day.”

“Oh, I didn’t do much,” she shrugged off.

Yes, she had. “You called Lucas. Actually,” she said, remembering that evening, “why did you say we were friends? I mean no offense, but we’ve never been that close.” She had talked to her a bit more than to Lucas, especially since she had started tutoring Nathan several months ago, but still, friends? That was a bit of a stretch.

“I know,” she chuckled, “but believe me, he would have never come if I had **─** ” She stopped abruptly, probably noticing Brooke’s frown.

“If you had told him it was me?” she asked, her voice coming out as much more tense than intended. Had Lucas’ best friend just confirmed that he hated her?

Haley looked very uneasy, “That’s not what I **─** ”

“Anyway, I got my car back and he won’t take my money. So, I figured I could buy him something, like maybe a book.” Wait, was that even a good idea anymore? Would anyone like getting a gift from someone they resented?

“That’s a great idea!” Haley said on cue, as if reading her mind. “He’ll love it.”

“But that’s the thing, I don’t know what kind of book he’s into.”

“Oh, just get him anything,” she said with a vague gesture.

“Anything? But what if he’s already read it?” 

Haley looked at her for a few seconds, and finally said, with a hint of a smile, “You’re right, there’s a high chance he’s already read any book you’ll give him. But he always buys them in pocket size, he says it’s easier to carry around, so just try one that hasn’t been published in paperback yet.”

She knew coming to Haley for this was a good idea. “Any writers you’d recommend?”

“Well, he’s really into classics,” she said, her eyebrows getting close to each other as she was thinking, “but I guess that’s not an option.”

“So, what does he not read?”

“What do you mean?” Haley asked, her head tilted.

“Well, if he’s read every book there is on Earth, I might as well go for something he doesn’t usually read.”

“You’re right,” she said, her eyes glinting. “In that case, go for horror or science fiction. He never reads either of those.” 

“Noted. Thanks again for everything,” she said with a smile.

Brooke walked to the door and stopped when someone came in the Café.

“Nate?”

“Brooke?” he asked in unison.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training right now?” she asked back, raising an eyebrow. Was she going crazy? Wasn’t that what he had told her he would do this morning?

“Yeah, I am, I mean I will, but I’ve got a tutoring session with Haley before that.”

She turned around to look at Haley, who was back on her phone. Then she glanced back at Nathan, “On a Saturday morning?”

He shrugged, “Yeah, my grades have been a bit down.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you tonight, then.”

“Yup,” she heard him say as she crossed the door.

What was going on with him? Not going to High Flyers, and now postponing training to study? That wasn’t like him at all. Was he struggling that hard with his grades? Why hadn’t he told her sooner? He wasn’t the kind to get embarrassed by such things.

She thought about telling Peyton at lunch but eventually decided not to. Nathan had asked her not to tell anyone about High Flyers, and she was going to keep her word. Instead, she told her best friend about her parents and how they were being secretive around her.

“What do you mean, secretive?” Peyton asked her, setting the table at which Brooke was already seated.

“Well, it’s just… I don’t know,” she said, pouring water into their glasses. “You know how my mom has been very quiet all summer?”

“Yeah, and tired too, right?” She put a plate of pasta in front of Brooke and sat across her with her own plate.

“So tired, I mean you should see her dark circles they’re **─** ” She stopped as she took a mouthful from her plate. “This is really good!”

“Thanks,” Peyton said with a proud smile. “Pasta alla puttanesca.”

“Gesundheit.”

Her friend laughed. “It’s from the book my dad sent me.”

“Oh right, the one with all the Italian recipes!”

Peyton chuckled, “He probably just wants me to practice for the day he comes back, he loves Italian food.”

“When is he coming back anyway? How many months has it been since his boat stopped in Tree Hill?”

“Ten,” Peyton said, her eyes getting a bit darker, her smile wearing off. “They’re not telling him anything. But we were talking about your mom.”

“Oh, right. I don’t know, there’s gotta be something. They keep whispering around and they stop talking as soon as they see me.”

“Are they fighting?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know,” she shrugged, “maybe I’m just imagining things.”

They finished their meals, talking about the literature assignment they had to do for Monday. Peyton asked her what she wanted to do this afternoon.

Brooke grabbed the plate she was being handed and scrubbed it with soap, “Actually, I was thinking of buying a book.”

“A book? Which one?” she asked, waiting with a towel in hand.

“I don’t know yet. It’s not for me, actually… It’s for Lucas.”

“Scott?” Peyton asked in disbelief.

“Do we know another one?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“Well, it’s just that… Where does this come from?”

Brooke shrugged as dismissively as she could. “It’s just that he helped with my car and he worked on it for free. I should at least get him something, right?”

Peyton looked surprised but still nodded, “Sure. I’ll come with you, I wanted to go buy some records anyway.”

Half an hour later, Peyton had stopped her car on the parking lot of Tree Hill’s largest book store. They first went to the music department, and as her friend was going straight to the sales assistant, Brooke walked around the aisles and reached the letter N. Her fingers traced the top of the records, until they stopped on what she was looking for. She took the record in her hands, examining it closely.

“Norah Jones?”

She turned to Peyton who was now standing behind her, peeking over her shoulder. Brooke shrugged, “Yeah, I’ve been listening to her songs lately.”

“Really?” Peyton asked, somehow sceptical. “I never thought you’d be into her music.”

“Me neither,” she admitted with a chuckle, “but I kind of like it. Do you have her records?”

She snorted, “Of course, who do you think I am?”

“Good,” Brooke said, putting the record back in its place, “I’ll probably borrow some from you. Did you find the one you wanted?”

“Nope,” she sighed, shaking her head in dismay, “they don’t have that big of a collection here. But he’s making phone calls to see if he can order it.” She then turned to the records in front of her and started picking some out. Brooke informed her that she was going upstairs to the book section, and got an absent-minded answer telling her she’d meet her in a few minutes.

She tried the horror section first. But as she checked out its books, she started thinking it was just weird to get Lucas a horror book. Well, it was weird anyway to get him anything, but this just brought it to a whole other level of bizarreness. She quickly decided that horror wouldn’t do and walked around until she found the science-fiction aisle.

No pocket books, she reminded herself, her eyes quickly scanning the shelves. There weren’t that many new books there.

One particular cover drew her attention. It showed a pair of lungs, intertwined with birds and gear wheels. She took the book in her hands. The title read Exhalation. She had never heard of the author, Ted Chiang, but then again, she wasn’t much of a reader. She looked at the other covers, but none seemed as good as this one.

She turned on her heels and went downstairs to the checkout. Peyton was nowhere to be seen, but she figured she could find her after paying for the book. When the cashier asked her if she wanted a loyalty card, she politely declined. She wasn’t planning on buying Lucas books every week.

She was about to insert her credit card, when she heard someone asking her if she wanted popcorn. She looked up, confused; the cashier was looking at his screen, unbothered. She looked around her and saw no one.

“Did you say something?” she asked to the cashier.

He looked at her, perplexed, “No.”

“But I heard─”

She looked down at her hands, the right one still holding her credit card; she could feel a tingle coming from her fingers and going up her hands. The same was happening in her feet. It was just like earlier this week in class, except this time she was standing up. The faint, buzzing sound came ringing in her ears just as she was expecting it. She looked around, starting to panic. Last time she had been sitting down, but this time if things were going the same way, then… She had to find a spot to sit on.

“Hey wait! You left your card! And your book!” she heard the cashier shout at her as she was struggling to walk away from him, desperately looking for a chair or something. She had decided on just sitting on the floor when she felt suddenly drowsy. She struggled hard for her eyelids to stay open, for only a few seconds, and then closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes. She was alone in her living room, sitting on the couch. She quickly looked down and sighed with relief; at least this time, she was fully clothed. And no naked Lucas around.

“Did you actually fall asleep while I was preparing the popcorn that _you_ asked for?”

She looked to her right, and there he was, standing with apparently a bucket full of popcorn. “What? Not again!” she exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

Lucas laughed at that. It was a gentle laugh that she wasn’t used to, not coming from him. “Don’t worry, I paused it,” he said, motioning towards the television. He grabbed the remote control on the other end of the couch and walked over to her side. He sat down right next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

She jerked his arm right away and jumped up. Lucas gave her a blank stare, blinked a few times then said, “Oh, sorry.”

“I can’t believe I’m having one of these episodes again,” she mumbled, shaking her head in dismay. She frowned when she saw that he seemed to find this whole situation entertaining. “What are you smiling about, huh?”

He struggled to wipe the grin off his face, “Nothing, Brooke.” He shifted to his right and patted the spot next to him, “Come on, since you’re stuck here, why don’t you watch this movie with me?”

She looked at the screen then back at him, not bothering to hide her distrust. But he was right, wasn’t he? She was stuck here until she would wake up, so she might as well make the most of it. She sat down, still looking warily at him.

After a few seconds of opening credits, she reluctantly said, “Lucas?”

“Yeah?”

“Could I have some popcorn please?”

He laughed again, this time making her smile for just a second before pulling herself together. “Sure,” he said, handing her the bucket.

She took a handful of popcorn and brought it to her mouth. “So,” she said between two gulps, “what movie is this?”

“You know, it’s that biopic on Elton John that came out a couple of years ago.”

She stopped chewing and stared at him, puzzled. She swallowed, “What are you talking about? It just came out.”

He looked back at her, startled. “Oh right, yeah, I was thinking of, er, another movie.”

She frowned, but to his apparent relief let it go and turned back to the screen. “Great, I actually wanted to go see it, but I missed it.”

Though what she was seeing right now was just a product of her imagination, right? What she thought the movie would be like.

She was incredibly surprised with the amount of details she could come up with in the movie. It really felt like she was watching it.

This time, her dream lasted much longer. The first time, it had been just a few minutes, but this time, fifteen minutes later, she was still there, watching her movie. Lucas, however, seemed interested in something other than the screen.

She quickly turned to him, making him jump. “What are you doing?” she asked, squinting.

“What?”

“You’re staring at me.”

“Oh, right,” he muttered, turning back to the television. “Sorry. Wait, no,” he said, looking back at her again, “I just want to know, erm… Do you know what this is?”

“What do you mean, this?”

“This,” he repeated, motioning around them.

“Could you be even more cryptic?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He turned his body to her, “Well, you specifically asked me to be.”

“Huh?”

“No, never mind,” he muttered with a slight frown.

“You know what?” she said, a little exasperated. “This is my dream **─** ”

“Dream?” he repeated, his eyes growing a bit wide.

“Well, duh. So, I was saying, this is my dream, so I should be the one asking the questions.”

He raised an eyebrow and seemed to relax more. He put an arm on the couch, his head resting on it. “Alright pretty girl, ask away,” he said with a crooked grin.

For a second, her heart seemed to thump out of her chest. She quickly looked down at the bucket of popcorn and took another mouthful, trying to stall in order to get back a bit of composure. Where did that nickname come from? Did that mean she wanted him to call her that in real life? How was that even possible?

She looked up at him, “What kind of book do you read?”

That seemed to throw him off. “Er, what?”

“Like, hypothetically, if someone was going to buy you a book, say on science-fiction, would you enjoy it?” She struggled hard not to shake her head at herself: why was she even bothering asking him that? He was just a product of her imagination, so whatever answer he would come up with would just be her own mind speaking.

“Why, are you gonna buy me one?”

“Well, it’s just that my mom thinks I should, since you helped me with my car and **─** ”

“Oh!” he said eagerly, startling her. “It’s the first day of school!”

“Well, that was five days ago,” she said, puzzled, “but yeah.” What a weird guy. “So? Any idea?”

He shrugged. “You can get me anything.”

“That’s exactly what Haley said but come on, is there no particular book on your mind right now?” This was ridiculous, why was she insisting on asking him? He was just a dream.

“No really Brooke, any book will do.”

“It can’t be.”

“It can,” he insisted, his eyes smiling at her. “I’ll be thrilled with anything you give me.” She felt her cheeks turning pink again. He noticed it as he smiled and looked… Well somehow, he looked nostalgic. He raised a hand and softly caressed her cheek. “I forgot you used to react like that,” he said, his voice suddenly lower.

“Wh… What are you talking about?” she mumbled. She couldn’t help but feel very troubled by his nearness, suddenly aware that they had moved closer to each other, his face being just a few inches away from hers.

She startled, hearing footsteps from afar. A faint, familiar voice was calling out her name. “What’s wrong?” Lucas asked with a frown.

“Can’t you hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“The **─** ” She stopped and froze when she felt the tingle coming up her hands and feet. “Oh no,” she muttered. Oh no? Why did she sound so disappointed?

“Brooke, are you okay?”

“Erm, yeah, just a little dizzy.” She closed her eyes, the buzzing sound starting to ring in her ears.

He gave her shoulders a slight pressure then stood up, “Let me get you some water.”

She knew he wouldn’t be back. She could already feel the drowsiness hitting her with force. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was staring at the ceiling. She could hear Peyton’s frightened voice calling her name, this time much more clearly than in her dream. She turned her head and saw that her friend was kneeling next to her.

“Oh, thank god.”

“What happened?” Brooke asked, trying to sit up.

“Oh no,” she heard another voice say, and she saw that the cashier was kneeling on her other side, “you stay down. You hit your head pretty hard.”

“I did what?”

Oh right, now she remembered. Right before falling asleep, she had been checking out her book. “I’m fine,” she said, sitting up despite their protests.

“Brooke, you scared the hell out of me,” Peyton said, hugging her tightly.

“I’m fine,” she repeated, patting her back. “Now can I please buy this book?”

The cashier looked at her as if she had gone mad. He insisted on keeping her in a sitting position for another minute before she could stand up. She then bought the book and Peyton took her home. Thankfully, her parents had gone out, otherwise they would have freaked out too.

“Sit down, and don’t move,” Peyton told her in a commanding voice.

Brooke did as she was told and sat on her couch. She glanced at the spot next to her, where Lucas had been sitting in her dream. Whatever, she thought, shaking her head, it was just a dream.

Peyton came back a couple of minutes later with a bowl of ice cream and a spoon that she handed to her. “Eat up.”

“Honestly, I feel great.”

“You fainted, Brooke. So eat.”

She obeyed and took a spoonful of ice cream. Fainted… Peyton was right, she wasn’t really falling asleep, she was fainting. And dreaming of Lucas. But why him? And he was different in her dreams, not just in the way he acted around her, but also the way he looked. Just now, he had had a stubble that she had never seen on him before.

After finishing her bowl, Brooke argued for a while to keep Peyton from telling her parents about this little incident. After much bargaining, she managed to make her promise not to say anything, on the condition that she would tell her parents if it ever happened again.

They worked on their assignments for about two hours, until it was starting to be late afternoon. Brooke got up, stretching out her arms.

“Alright, time to get ready!”

“Ready for what?” Peyton asked her absent-mindedly, her face buried in her paper.

“For Nathan’s party.”

She looked up, “What? You’re not going.”

“Are you nuts? It’s Nathan’s end of the summer party, I can’t miss it!”

“Brooke, you just **─** ”

“So I fainted, big deal, it happens to a lot of people, alright? Do I look tired to you? Or ill?”

Peyton frowned, and admitted reluctantly , “No.”

“Then we’re going,” she said, grabbing her arm and pulling her from the couch.

“But if you feel **─** ”

“I swear I’ll go home the minute I start feeling weird again, okay?”

There was no way she was missing this party. Firstly, because it was one of the biggest parties of their senior year, and secondly because Nathan would never forgive her if she missed it.

It took them a little while to get ready. Correction, it took Brooke a while, mainly because she was still flustered from her dream and kept thinking about it. And where did that nickname come from anyway? Pretty girl? Had anyone ever called her that before?

When they reached Nathan’s house, it was already packed with people. They went around it and got in through the kitchen, where they knew it would be easier to walk around. They met with fellow cheerleaders and were talking to them when Brooke noticed Mouth walking out of the kitchen to the living room. She told Peyton that she was going for a stroll, and before her friend could object, assured her she would scream for help the minute she felt like she would faint again.

“Mouth!” she yelled, jogging after him. He couldn’t hear her though, not with the deafening music around them. “Hey Mouth!”

She finally managed to catch up with him and grabbed his arm, surprising him, “Brooke!”

“Hi,” she said with a grin, “where are you going like that?”

“Oh,” he said, looking at the cups he was holding in each hand, “Skills and Fergie are over at the court.”

No surprise there, Brooke thought. “Come on, walk with me for a bit,” she said, linking their arms together. “I was wondering the other day… Didn’t you say your grams could interpret dreams?”

“Yeah, she’s kinda famous in her town for that, why?”

“Any chance that’s hereditary?”

“If you want to know if I can do the same, the answer is no,” he said with a chuckle. “Why are you asking?”

“Just curious,” she said, trying her best to hide her disappointment. “Alright, you’re free to go,” she said, releasing his arm.

He didn’t leave right away. Instead, he kept looking at her with a concerned frown, “Are you okay, Brooke?”

“Sure, why?”

“Just… You look troubled.”

She smiled at him and patted his shoulder, “I’m fine Mouth, but thanks for asking.”

She went upstairs, greeting a few people on her way there, and locked herself in a bathroom. Mouth was right, she was troubled. Troubled by everything going on lately. Her parents, her dreams about Lucas, her fainting. And then this week, she had suddenly stopped dreaming about the rabbit. What was that supposed to mean? Two months of having the same dream over and over again and one day, it was just gone?

She went to the sink and splashed her face with cold water. When she was done cleaning her face, she heard a knock on the door. Nathan’s voice came through.

“Brooke? You okay in there?”

She unlocked the door and opened it. Nathan was leaning on the wall next to her. “Hi,” she told him with a faint smile.

“Are you okay?”

He looked way too concerned. “Did Peyton talk to you?”

“Yeah. So you really fainted again?”

She walked up to him, “Yes, but you know I think it’s just the heat, I’m not good with it.”

He frowned a little and looked around them, “I know, it can get hard to breathe here. Come with me, I know where you’ll be fine.”

He led her to another corridor and stopped in front of a door. “Wait,” she said, “isn’t that **─** ”

“My dad’s office, yeah. Nobody comes in here anymore,” he says, opening the door for her.

She walked in, looking around them with awe. “Wow. Remember how he forbade us to come in here? And how we used to try and get in anyway?”

He laughed at that memory. “My mom used to run after us all the time back then.”

She looked around: it was now an empty room. It looked like Dan Scott’s office would forever remain a mystery to her. Well, it wasn’t completely empty, there were book shelves covering an entire wall, but they were half empty. She got closer and looked down at a dozen of cardboard boxes filled with books.

“He’s coming tomorrow to get them.”

“What about those on the shelves?” she asked, nodding at them.

“They’re my mom’s. She wants to turn this into a reading room.”

Her eyes got caught by a series of books on a shelf on her left. “Hey, do you mind if take a look at some books?”

“Suit yourself,” he answered with a shrug. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

She smiled at him as he exited the room, closing the door behind her. She turned back to the books that had caught her attention.

She grabbed two of them and went to open the windows, letting in a gentle breeze. In this room, all the noises from the house were muffled. She sat down cross-legged below the windows and read the title.

The dream interpretation dictionary: symbols, signs and meanings.

She opened it and realized it was an alphabetical list of keywords. What was she supposed to look for? Lucas? No way, it wouldn’t work. How about… R for rabbit. For some reason, it seemed like it had all started with that damn rabbit. She had kept seeing it this summer, then in Lucas’ car and in the bedroom dream. It had to be connected somehow, had it not? Her finger stopped on the word and followed the dotted line next to it, to the page number 333.

Alright, page number 333… There it was, the section for Rabbit. _As with other animals and creatures in dreams, the symbolism of a rabbit depends on associations. Rabbits have long been associated with sexual activity._ Say what? _White rabbits in particular are associated with purity and faithfulness._ _Rabbits are associated with luck and good fortune._ Blah, blah, blah, she thought, skimming through the rest of the paragraph. _Rabbits are associated with being in a hurry, as in the story of the tortoise and the hare._ So what, that meant she was in a hurry to have sex? She shook her head and put down the book next to her, taking the other one in her hands.

This one was titled “Symbolism in dreams: what to expect from the unexpected.” She frowned; this title sounded even less reliable. She opened it nonetheless to see that it was organized similarly to the first one. She went straight to the letter R and looked under Rabbit. _In many cultures, a rabbit is a powerful symbol. It is a mysterious and magical creature that usually translates into a wonderful omen. In most cases seeing a rabbit means the area of your life that you are dreaming about is expected to see some lucky breaks in the near future. Rabbits are also associated with rebirth, growth, and new beginnings._ And then there was another paragraph about fertility and sexual desires.That was just nonsense, wasn’t it? A magical creature? Lucky breaks? So far, she had fainted twice in public and her car had broken down on her first day of school. Talk about good omens.

She reached for the first book, flipping through it forward then backwards. She stopped at the introduction part, that she had skipped earlier. It was about dreams and their general meanings. She read quickly through it until she stopped at a paragraph called “Identical dreams.” _Identical dreams: you find yourself back in the same scenario and know how it’s going to play out, like the movie Groundhog Day._ Wait, she knew that one: it was the movie with the guy from Ghostbusters repeatedly living the same day until he could go out with the girl from Four weddings and a funeral. _The story doesn’t continue, it loops back and starts over. This type of recurring dreams tends to vex the dreamers who have them. They sense that a message is trying to get through something important. Once you get the message and act accordingly, these recurring dreams either stop or progress to the next scene._ Now this part made more sense. It was true that her dreams about the rabbit had been similar: watching it go round and round until she finally caught it last Monday. And she had definitely been vexed all summer by this dream. And she also had the feeling that she was supposed to understand something from it, but she couldn’t figure out what exactly. _Once you get the message and act accordingly, these recurring dreams either stop or progress to the next scene._ She hadn’t had that dream since the beginning of the week, did that mean that she had acted accordingly? But nothing special had happened on the day her dreams had stopped _._ Well, except that she had had her first dream about Lucas and she had talked to him for the first time in ages, but… That couldn’t be it, now, could it?

The door flung open, startling her. And since life had decided to ridicule her, of course it was Lucas that came in. Good omens, huh?

“Oh, hi,” he said, looking around him. “Did you actually find the one room in this house empty of people?”

For a second, she thought no word would come out of her mouth, until she found her voice back, “Nathan told me about it.”

“Have you seen Haley? I’ve been looking for her.”

“No”, she shook her head.

“Oh, okay,” he said. She felt relieved to see him turning on his heels, but that lasted only for a second, as he stopped and glanced back at her. “Are you reading?”

“No,” she said, hurriedly closing the books and holding them as she was getting up.

“Yeah you are,” he said, turning back and walking to her. “What are you reading?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled, putting the books behind her back.

He stopped in front of her, “Come on, I’m not blind.”

She sighed, looking around furtively, and realized she had no way out of this. “Fine, but you can’t laugh.” She handed him the books that she had failed to hide.

He took them and read the titles, raising his eyebrows. “The dream interpretation dictionary… I didn’t know that one,” he said with a chuckle. “Having weird dreams lately, Brooke?” he asked, looking up from the books, with his head tilted and a mischievous grin on his lips.

For a second, she thought she was back in her dream, and she could see Lucas sitting on her couch, with his cocky grin. _“Alright pretty girl, ask away.”_

Her heart started pounding in her chest and she knew she was blushing. She frowned, tried her best to ignore his astounded look, and brushed past him as she hurried out of the room. She heard him call her name but didn’t look back; instead, she almost ran out of the house, pushing away several people in the process.

She had to find a solution; she could not keep being so weird around him.

She went to the only other place in this house where she knew she wouldn’t be bothered. There were only a few people around the court, and most of them were playing basketball. She sat on the same patch of grass where she had found a lonely boy last year and lied down, staring at the clear sky above her. At first, she could only single out two or three stars, but as she kept watching, the rest of them started revealing themselves. She was finally starting to relax when she heard footsteps approaching. She turned her eyes away from the sky and saw that Lucas was walking towards her.

He stopped a few feet away from her, looking utterly distraught. “Brooke, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

At least he hadn’t realized why she had been so flustered. She frowned, thinking that she had to get used to this strange feeling she had around him. “You can come closer you know, I won’t bite.”

He visibly held back a smile and lied down closer to her, imitating her. “That’s a nice view,” he said, looking up at the sky.

“I agree.”

They stayed silent for a while, which was only for the best. At least her heart wasn’t running a marathon anymore. She frowned, noting that it wasn’t just her who didn’t know how to act around him, somehow it felt like he didn’t know how to either. Well, he had always been a little awkward around her, especially for the past year, but that was only because she was always with Peyton.

Though at that exact moment, Peyton was nowhere to be seen and yet he was still acting as if he was walking on eggshells.

“You know, I really tried to tell her to give you a chance.”

He turned his head to her, “Who are you talking about?”

“Peyton,” she sighed, still refusing to look at him. “Last year, after the party, I did try to tell her that she should give you a chance. She just wouldn’t listen.”

It took him a few seconds to answer, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Well,” she said, this time daring to look back at him, “I figured you resented me because you thought I said something against you. So, I just want you to know, I didn’t. I actually defended you.”

He looked bewildered, “I don’t…” he seemed to hesitate. “I’ve never resented you, Brooke.”

“Really?” she asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow. Then why had Haley told her that he wouldn’t have come to her help had he known she was the one in need? That only made sense if he hated her.

“I would never,” he said, his voice getting lower.

For a second, the real Lucas and dream-Lucas overlapped once more, and she knew her cheeks had turned pink again.

She swiftly sat up straight, taking him aback, “I gotta go.”

“Wh─ Where?” he asked, sitting up.

“I have to check on the DWNotI drivers. Make sure they’re not drinking. See you around,” she said before leaving.

That was all a lie. She trusted those drivers enough not to track them. She just needed an excuse to get away.

She didn’t stay long after that. She hung around for another half an hour and then told Peyton she was going home. The next morning, when she woke up, she noticed that the summer heat had almost disappeared. Finally, she thought, some good news. As she went downstairs to the kitchen, she was surprised to see her mother having breakfast alone.

“Where’s Dad?”

They usually had their first meal of the day together, at least on Sundays.

Victoria, who had been reading something on her phone, looked up at her as she sat down next to her. “He went to work.”

“But it’s Sunday!” she exclaimed, stunned.

“I know. And I think we should get used to it,” she said with a frown, looking back at her phone. “How was your night? You came home earlier than planned.”

“Oh, it was nice. I was just a little tired.”

“Did you get your car back?”

“Yup, yesterday morning.”

Her mother furtively glanced at her, “Did you get something for that boy?”

“His name is Lucas,” she mumbled. “Yeah, I bought him a book, but… I don’t know, Mom, it’s just weird, I barely know him─”

“So? It doesn’t matter, he helped you, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“So who cares if you don’t really know him? And you’ve already bought something too.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “I guess you’re right. But─”

“No buts. Come on Brooke, you’re a brave girl, just go and give him this book already.”

She smiled; her mother had just sounded like herself for the first time in months. “You’re right. Thanks Mom.”

She got dressed and grabbed the book from her desk. Before leaving her house, she looked for wrapping paper, but all she could find was Christmas themed. Well, she thought, that was still better than nothing, even with the Christmas trees and Santa Claus faces all over it.

Soon after that, Brooke had parked her car in front of Lucas’ house. She glanced at the package she had put in the passenger seat; it really looked like a Christmas gift. She rolled her eyes, remembering her mother’s words, and got out of her car. She knocked on the front door, but no one answered. She frowned and tried to peer through the windows but couldn’t see anything.

She walked around the house and saw that there was another pair of stairs leading to a backdoor. She walked them up and knocked at that other door. Still, she got no answer.

She sighed, wondering whether or not she should just leave the gift here. But she hadn’t even written her name on it. Wait a second, that actually sounded like a good idea, that way they would be even without her having to─

“Brooke?”

She turned on her heels. Lucas was slowly walking to her, his basketball under one arm. He had obviously come back from a game. That was when she recalled Nathan telling her that he sometimes joined Lucas and his friends on Sunday mornings at the River Court.

“Hi,” she said as he was going up the steps, still looking as if he was daydreaming. “Sorry to bother you, but─”

“You’re not.”

"Not what?"

"Bothering me." 

“Oh," she answered, caught off guard. "Okay.”

“Do you want to come in?” he asked her, putting a hand on his door handle.

“Oh no,” she hurriedly said, “I just wanted to drop this off.”

“Is that a Christmas gift?” he asked, looking more and more confused.

“No, that's the only wrapping paper I have at home. But it is a gift, though,” she said, handing it out to him. “For my car.”

“Oh,” he said, taking the book in his hands, a gentle smile coming to his lips. “Thanks Brooke, you really didn’t have to.”

She frowned; he looked really thrilled, just as the Lucas from her dream had told her. And he hadn’t even opened it yet. He was just about to, when they both heard a phone ringing from the house.

“Let me get that, I’ll be right back,” he said, hurrying inside, leaving the door ajar.

She let out a sigh of relief; well, that had not been so terrifying after all. She glanced at the door, hesitating for a short while. Her curiosity got the best of her as she opened the door and peeked inside.

Her jaw dropped, and she mechanically walked in the room.

That was… Impossible. Simply impossible. And yet she had already been in his room. Or at least, she had seen it five days ago, in her dream.

The bed was the same, and so were the colour of the walls, the book shelves, the chest of drawers and almost everything else in the room. She walked around it, her brain working fast. There were less books on the shelves and the poster on the door was of another band. She stopped in front of the walk-in closet and mechanically ran her hand over the hangers. How in the hell was that possible?

Wait, the lamp! She quickly turned around and grabbed it, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t rabbit-shaped at all, it was just a regular lamp.

How? Why?

This was insane, she had had a dream, she had never been in this room before, so how had she been able to picture it almost down to the last detail? She just… She was not…

She suddenly felt very dizzy. This time, she didn’t feel any tingle or hear any buzzing. It all happened very fast too; she felt hot, and breathless, and started seeing dark spots. She felt weak all of a sudden and let go of the lamp.

The last thing Brooke heard, before passing out, was the sound of the lamp crashing on the floor.


	4. Don't know why

She was confused at first. She didn’t know where she was or who these people talking around her were. 

It took her a few seconds to recognize Lucas’ voice. There was another male voice, saying that no, she shouldn’t be moved around, not after her fall. That it was just better to leave her on the floor. Her eyes flickered open. She could see underneath a bed: a lone sock, a pair of shorts, and lots of dust balls. She was lying on her left side. Why was she lying on her left side? She closed her eyes, feeling tired, and rolled on her back. She winced as she felt a dull ache on the back of her head. Her hand went to the source of the pain and rubbed her scalp. She moved her other hand and grabbed the bed, trying to pull herself up.

She froze when she heard someone say, “Careful Brooke, you hit your head pretty hard.”

Brooke opened her eyes once again to see that Keith was kneeling at her feet. She lied down and looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling above her. She turned her head a little to her right to see that Lucas was imitating his uncle, only he was at her head.

“Welcome back,” Keith told her in a soft voice. “Looks like you passed out.”

Again, she thought bitterly. Except this time had been different, she hadn’t dreamt of anything. And before her fall, she hadn’t felt the tingle, or heard the buzzing sound, or felt drowsy. What had happened to her this time? Why was she here? Where was she anyway?

It all came back to her like a crashing wave. She sat up swiftly, surprising Keith and Lucas. She knew why she had fainted. It was because she had been in Lucas’ room and that it looked exactly like the room she had pictured in her dream. Her eyes travelled fast around her, stopping briefly on the bed, the door, the chest of drawers, the walls. They were all the same. How was that even possible? What the hell was wrong with her? How could she dream of things that existed but that she had never seen before?

“Brooke, are you okay?” Keith asked her.

She looked at him and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Instead, she felt a lump in her throat, getting bigger by the second, until she felt like it was crushing her windpipe, blocking the air in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe properly anymore, she had to take sharp, erratic intakes. She was drowning, yet there was no water around her.

She heard Keith say something about hyperventilating, but she couldn’t focus on his exact words. She barely noticed when he ran out of the room. Her eyes were brimming with tears that she could not stop. She couldn’t stop, or control anything anymore, not her dreams, not her breathing and definitely not her hands that were now shaking. 

Lucas shifted to sit on her side and put a hand on her back, “Brooke, hey, slow down. Everything’s fine.”

His uncle rushed back in the room and handed her a paper bag, “Here, put this on your mouth. Luke.”

She couldn’t possibly do any of that, it was just too hard. “Come on,” Lucas told her, grabbing her left wrist and lifting it up to her face. He brought the paper bag to the same level, which made it easier for her to hold onto it and to bring it to her mouth.

“Alright,” Keith said, “now I need you to take deep, slow breaths, okay? Can you do that? Look at me, Brooke.” She looked up at him and watched as he motioned her how to proceed. “In, and out. Come on, do it with me Brooke. Just focus on my voice. In, and out.” She wanted to, but her mind was just too bothered with the tremor in her right hand. Thankfully, it disappeared when she felt another hand covering hers and gripping it with strength. “In,” ─she breathed in and waited for Keith’s signal─ “and out.”

The first one was the hardest; it gradually got easier and after six or seven intakes, the lump in her throat was gone and her mind seemed to clear up. She eventually moved the paper bag off her face and put it on the bed.

“Alright, that’s better,” Keith told her with a comforting smile.

She did feel better, as she managed to give him a faint smile. She could still feel the pressure on her right hand; she looked down and saw that Lucas was still firmly holding it. Well, at least, she wasn’t blushing; she had been too caught up in her panic attack to be flustered around him. Her eyes moved away from their intertwined hands, to a spot near them where she could see shards of a broken lamp. A lamp she had been holding when she had fainted.

“Oh no. I’m so sorry,” she muttered.

Lucas followed her gaze, “Who cares?”

“But─”

“Do you think you can stand up?” he asked her.

She nodded, prompting him to help her up. When she stood on her feet, she noticed that he had let go of her hand.

“Come on”, Keith told her, “let’s get you something to drink.”

She thought about refusing him and telling him she was alright, but she felt different from the two previous times she had fainted. She felt… Tired, somehow. That was what she described to Keith when, as he was inviting her to sit at the kitchen table, he asked her how she was feeling. 

“Well I think that’s normal, at least that’s how I remember it.”

She sat down, “How you remember what?”

“Oh, I fainted once,” he said, filling a teapot with water and tea leaves. “It was awful. It lasted a few seconds only, but when I woke up, I didn’t know where I was, and it took me a few seconds to realize what had just happened.” He put the teapot on the stove. “And then I felt exhausted for, I don’t know, an hour or so. Karen, that’s Lucas’ mother, she loves telling this story because─ What are you still doing here?”

She turned her head to Lucas, who was standing arm-crossed against the fridge and watching her closely. He threw a puzzled look at his uncle, “What do you mean?”

“Go take a shower already!”

“But─”

“I won’t take my eyes off her, now go.”

He looked reluctant as he left the room. Once the water was ready, Keith poured it in a cup and brought it to her with a chocolate bar and an ice pack. He offered her a big chunk of chocolate and took one for himself, sitting in the nearest chair.

“Feeling any better?” he asked her after she had eaten her chocolate.

She sipped on her tea, still holding the ice pack against the bump on her head. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks a lot.” She hesitated before asking, “What were you going to say? You didn’t finish your story.”

“Right, well Karen loves telling this story because it happened when she was giving birth.”

She almost spat out her tea. “What?”

“Yup, welcoming Lucas into this world was just too hard for me to handle.” She giggled, making him smile. “See, people faint for the most ridiculous reasons. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong with them.” Her laughter faded out. “I’m guessing that’s why you panicked?”

She looked down at her cup of tea, frowning a bit. “I think so, yeah. It’s just that… When I got in Lucas’ room, I had a sense of déjà-vu. It became” ─she paused, looking for the right word─ “overwhelming. And then when I woke up it scared me.”

“There’s nothing scary about having a déjà-vu. It’s just your brain remembering something similar.”

But how could her brain remember something she had never seen before? Though Keith was right, it was nothing to be scared of. Weirded out, sure, but not scared. She smiled at him, “Thanks Mr Scott.”

“Just call me Keith.”

He stood up and went to the fridge, taking out a casserole dish. “What were you doing here anyway?” he asked her as he was putting it in the oven. “Don’t tell me Lucas was drunk again?”

She chuckled and put down the ice pack on the table, “No, I came to, erm, give him something.”

“Oh right,” Lucas’ voice came from behind her. She turned around to see that he was standing in the doorway, dressed in clean clothes. “I haven’t even looked at it. I was about to when I saw you passed out on my floor.” He tilted his head, “What were you doing in my room anyway?”

“Nothing,” she replied way too quickly. “I mean,” she added, racking her brains for an excuse, “I started feeling bad, so I came in to call you.”

He nodded, apparently buying it. She finished her tea and as she was about to stand up and leave, Keith asked her if she was a vegetarian.

She wondered where that came from but answered nonetheless: “No. Why?”

“Well,” Keith answered, pointing at the oven, “this has beef in it, so─”

“Oh no,” she jumped up, “I’m fine now, I’ll just go home.”

“Are you crazy? I can’t let you go home with an empty stomach.”

“But you already gave me tea and chocolate─”

“Which is famously known as a substantial meal. Come on Brooke, we’re gonna have lunch anyway, you might as well join us.”

She turned to Lucas, who simply shrugged with his palms up. “But I’m─”

“Brooke,” Keith said, sounding suddenly just like her father when he was inflexible, “you’re eating with us, period.”

She was about to reply but when she saw how decided he looked, she gave him a slight nod and sat back on her chair. He nodded back at her with a gentle smile. They both startled when they heard Lucas laughing, his gaze going from Keith to her.

“Keith you’ve got a gift!” Lucas said between two laughs. “No one ever gets the last word with her.” 

She looked at him with feigned offense, “I’m not that bad.”

“I think Erica Marsh begs to differ. Poor girl,” he explained to his uncle, “she was her opponent during the election debate, and she couldn’t get a single word in.”

Brooke smiled proudly as she recalled that debate. She had to thank Mouth for that though, they had prepared quite the winning speech and perfect answers to every possible question. “That is true.”

Keith took out a pile of plates and cutlery from a cabinet and handed them to Lucas. He then came to her with a tray carrying glasses, “Can you take this to the dining room?”

“Sure,” she said, standing up. 

She followed Lucas to the table where he started putting out the plates. She froze as she started counting the glasses on her tray. She put it down on the table. “Why are there six glasses? And six plates?”

Lucas looked up at her as he was arranging the knives. “Nate and Deb are coming too.”

“You’re having guests?”

“I don’t know if you can call them guests─”

“Thank you for that,” a male voice said from behind them. They both turned to see that, right on cue, Nathan had just arrived. He bumped fists with Lucas then turned to her as she was putting out the last glass, “When Keith told me that we were having lunch with Brooke Davis, I thought he had lost it.”

She did a curtsy that made him laugh and turned to the doorway from where he had come, “Where’s your mom?”

“She’s getting here with Karen, they were working together this morning. Not that I’m complaining Brooke, I would never dare to, but what are you doing here?”

She looked quickly at Lucas, “Oh, I was just passing by─”

“To pay for her car,” Lucas finished for her. “So Keith invited her to stay.”

They sat down when Keith brought the casserole on the table. “When did you leave last night?” Nathan asked her, eying the meal with obvious hunger.

“Early,” she said with a shrug. She took out her phone and texted her mother that she wouldn’t be eating at home for lunch. “Aren’t you tired? When did the last people leave?”

“5 am. But I’m fine, I woke up like half an hour ago.”

They all looked at him as if he was insane, but it was Brooke who worded it out to him, “Wait, you haven’t cleaned up your house yet?”

“No,” Nathan said, confused as to why they looked so shocked. “I’ll do it when I get home. And anyway, Dan is getting his stuff out of the house right now, so I figured I could leave him a few obstacles.”

“A few?” Lucas repeated in a sceptic tone.

Brooke shook her head in dismay, “Nate, your mom’s gonna kill you.”

“She won’t.”

“She will,” Lucas and Brooke said at the same time.

Nathan looked at his brother then at her, his grin getting wider. “Look at you two, syncing up.”

She squinted at him, wondering why he sounded so thrilled. But before she could ask him, they were interrupted by his mother and Karen. She got up as soon as she saw them.

“Brooke!” Deb exclaimed as she was hugging her. “Oh, it’s been so long! I didn’t know you were joining us!”

“I didn’t know either,” Karen said with an amused look at Keith.

“Long story,” Keith murmured, kissing her cheek, “I’ll tell you later.”

“Well, I don’t think we’ve met before,” Lucas' mother said, turning to Brooke. “I’m Karen.”

“I know. I mean, I’ve been to your Café several times and many times to the Tric. Peyton’s my best friend.”

“Peyton’s best friend…” she murmured with a quick glance at her son. “Well it’s nice to meet you.”

They all went back to their seats and started eating. Karen and Deb told them about the meeting they had had with Tric’s workers and it sounded like it had been awful. They had explained that they wouldn’t be done in October, as it had first been planned, and that they would need another couple of months.

“What?” Keith said between two mouthfuls. “But then that means you won’t be able to open until─”

“January,” Deb said dryly.

Peyton was about to be deeply disappointed. She had desperately been waiting for its reopening.

“I still haven’t told Peyton,” Karen told them and then looked at Brooke. “How long have you known her?”

“Pretty much my whole life. We met in kindergarten, we were in the same group as Nathan.”

“So, you guys have always been together then?”

“I grew apart, in, what was it, middle school?” Nathan asked her. Brooke nodded. “And then I started hanging out with them again in high school.”

“How are your parents by the way?” Deb asked her. “I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“They’re good,” she said tentatively. Or were they? Had her father even come home for lunch?

She looked around the table, as Nathan was thankfully changing the subject. She listened as they talked about many things: work, school, basketball, the weather, their Thanksgiving plans. She suddenly felt nostalgic. When was the last time she had had a real family meal with her parents?

When there was no food left on their plates, Karen and Keith went in the kitchen to get the dessert. It was probably then that Keith told her about Brooke’s little incident, for when they came back, Karen kept asking her if she wanted more water or another slice of cake.

“No really,” she declined politely after finishing her dessert, “I’m full. I should go anyway, thank you so much for the meal.”

“I’m going too,” Nathan said, imitating her as she stood up. “I’ve got some cleaning to do.”

Deb turned her head to him, her eyes suddenly darkening. “You haven’t cleaned the house yet?”

“No, but” ─he looked at Brooke as she snickered─ “Brooke said she’d help.”

“Excuse me?” Brooke retorted, raising an eyebrow.

“Do you have anything else to do?”

“Not right now, but─”

Lucas cleared his throat. “Didn’t you say you were tired?” he asked Brooke. 

She looked at him, confused. “When did I say that?” She realized that he was trying to get her out of this, but it was too late.

“So you’re not tired and you have nothing else to do,” Nathan summarized.

“I… I guess I can come then,” she mumbled reluctantly, shooting daggers at him.

After giving her a satisfied look, he turned to his brother and asked, “What about you Luke, are you free for some cleaning?”

He stared at Nathan, clearly about to refuse him but seemed to give it a thought. He gave Brooke a quick glance before answering his brother, “Sure.”

Wait, what had just happened? He had clearly tried to get her out of this, and he had clearly looked like he didn’t want to help, so why had he changed his mind?

She didn’t get a chance to ask him, as she said goodbye to the adults and thanked Keith and Karen for their hospitality. 

It was no wonder he needed help: Nathan's house was a war zone. Cups, papers, empty bottles and even clothes littered the floor.

“She is so gonna kill you,” Lucas told his brother as they were making their way in the kitchen.

“She won’t, not with your help.” Nathan turned to Brooke who was staring at a suspect stain on the floor. “Hey, do you think Peyton would come too?”

She looked up at him. “Why don’t you ask her?”

“She’ll never agree if I ask. Different story if it’s you.”

She hesitated for a second, “Alright, I’ll try.”

“So, how about you guys go upstairs, and I’ll stay here until Peyton gets here?”

“If she gets here," Brooke corrected. "And that’s a big if. You really want to handle all this,” she said, motioning around them, “by yourself?”

Nathan took her by the shoulders and pushed her towards the door. “Don’t worry about me.”

He gave them each a pair of cleaning gloves and lots of garbage bags. She went upstairs, Lucas following her.

“Oh thank god,” she said as she noticed that it wasn’t half as bad as downstairs. She turned to Lucas, “I take left and you take right?”

“Sure.”

She watched as he walked to the right end of the corridor and turned to her left to the last room there: a bathroom. After she was done picking up cups from the floor and as she was cleaning the bathtub, she remembered that Nathan had asked her to call Peyton.

She didn’t know why, but part of her didn’t want to do so. She felt that if Peyton were to come, she would spend time with Lucas and… And then what? Why was that idea bothering her? She frowned and scrubbed the bathtub harder than before. Was it her dreams again, was that why she felt uncomfortable with Peyton and Lucas hanging out? So, what if her unconscious kept showing her spending time with Lucas, it didn’t mean he was hers. Did she want him to be hers? Was that really what those dreams meant? And that still didn’t explain how she had guessed with acute precision what Lucas’ room looked like.

She finished washing the bathtub and took her phone out, calling Peyton.

“Hi P,” she said as her friend picked up, “Am I waking you up?”

Her friend sounded groggy, “Almost, yeah.”

“When did you get home?”

“Too late. Where are you?”

Brooke closed the bathroom door as she left it and went to the next room, Dan’s former office. The carboard boxes were all gone now. After a quick glance, she knew it didn’t need to be cleaned, and moved on to the next room. “Nathan’s," she answered. "He needed some help to clean his house.”

“That’s very generous of you.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice, he cornered me in front of his mom─”

“Deb? How come you saw her?”

“Oh well, erm, I kinda had lunch with them and Lucas’ parents and─ Hey you didn’t lose a shoe, did you?”

“I don’t think so, why?”

“Because there’s one in the toilets,” she said as she picked it up. “Maybe we could organize a lost and found at school, but I’m not sure Turner would be up for it.”

“Okay, but back to what you were saying, how did you end up having lunch with all of them?”

“I wanted to give the book to Lucas, so I went to his place.”

“And?”

“And that’s it. His uncle invited me for lunch.”

“And you said yes?”

“I tried to say no, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Who, Lucas?”

“No, his uncle. Keith.”

Peyton stayed silent for a few seconds. “What are you not telling me?”

“Nothing! And anyway, that’s not why I’m calling you. Can you get over here? We could use another pair of hands.”

“Okay,” she said after a moment.

“Thanks P.”

She hung up before her friend could ask her more about why she had agreed on having lunch with a bunch of people she barely knew, minus Nathan and Deb. Peyton didn’t need to know about her passing out this morning. If she heard about it, Brooke would have to tell her parents, and she didn’t want to do that. Not to mention that this morning’s episode had been very different from the two other times it had happened. It had really felt as if she had fainted this morning, whereas the other times, it had felt like… Well she couldn’t explain it, but it had just been different. 

She looked at the door in front of her. Did she really need to go in Nathan’s bedroom? He usually locked it up before hosting a party. She still opened the door and looked around quickly; no one had been there, it was perfectly clean─ wait no, there was something on the floor. She slowly walked to his bedside table and crouched next to it, picking up a bracelet. When she stood up, she felt a slight pang of pain to her head. She sat on Nathan’s bed, raising a hand to the bump on the back of her head. She looked down at the bracelet in her other hand and twirled it around: it was made mostly of pink beads and a couple of heart-shaped ones. It looked like it belonged to a little girl. What was it doing in Nathan’s room?

She quickly put it in her pocket as she heard a knock on the door. A second later, Lucas opened it and peered in the room. “Hey. How are you feeling?”

He looked concerned. Or was it just her mind playing tricks on her? “I’m okay.”

“Good. By the way, thanks for the book. It looks interesting.”

“Oh, come on. I couldn’t just have you work for me for free, right?”

“You mean like how Nate is making us work for him right now?”

She laughed, making him smile. “Exactly like that.” She stood up and they both went to pick up the cups that were layered in the hall. After a few minutes of silence, she eventually said aloud what she had been thinking since lunch. “Your parents are nice.” She closed her garbage bag and lifted it up. He didn’t say anything back; instead he stared at her, his eyebrows raised. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No. But you said parents. Plural.”

“Well, isn’t Keith like your dad? He acts like one anyway.”

He smiled warmly at her. “Yeah, he is.”

They finished cleaning up the second floor in a silence that reminded her of the car ride he had offered her earlier that week. It wasn’t uncomfortable or awkward. It felt… good. When they were done, they brought the garbage bags downstairs and went to the kitchen.

“Wow,” Brooke said as she glanced around the room. It looked brand new.

Nathan stopped moping and grinned at them. “I know. Where’s Sawyer anyway?”

“She said she’d come. Nathan you did a great job here.”

“There’s still the living room but I’ll take care of that. You guys can handle the garden, it shouldn’t take long.”

“You go first,” she told Lucas, “I need to talk to Nate.”

Lucas looked puzzled by her request but didn’t pry and left them alone. She turned to Nathan, who seemed like he didn’t have a clue either on what she wanted to talk about. She took the bracelet out of her pocket and put it on the kitchen table.

Nathan’s blood seemed to drain from his face as he walked to her and picked up the beaded jewelry. “Where did you find that?” he asked, his voice unusually high-pitched. 

“In your bedroom.”

“Did Lucas see it?”

“What?” she asked confused. Why did it matter whether Lucas had seen it or not? “No, I didn’t show him.” Relief came across his face as he relaxed his shoulders. “So?” she asked him when he stayed silent. “Whose is it?”

He put it away in his pocket and went back to the mop. “No one.”

“Nate,” she sighed, “I know you said yesterday that you couldn’t say anything and I feel like this” ─she pointed at his pocket hiding the bracelet away─ “has something to do with it. But I just want to make sure of something. You’re not dating a 5th grader, are you?”

He stopped cleaning the floor and roared with laughter, tears coming to his eyes. “What? Are you nuts?”

“Well, it’s just… You’re clearly seeing someone in secret and from the looks of it she’s in primary school.”

“She’s not─ I’m not seeing anyone. But, erm, just to be safe, could you not mention any of this to Lucas?”

She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Sure, but that’s two favors you owe me now. Actually, make it three with the spring cleaning you’ve forced on us.”

“I swear I’ll make it up to you. Now go help my brother.”

Brooke left the kitchen, shaking her head at him. Something was definitely up with him. And why was he so freaked out about Lucas seeing that bracelet?

She went through the back door and looked around her: the area was clean and Lucas was nowhere to be seen. She walked around the house, wondering where he had gone, and froze when she saw him standing at the other end of the driveway, speaking to Peyton.

Her best friend looked… Well, she looked quite upset, Brooke could tell even from afar. Why was she so upset? Lucas seemed embarrassed about something. Peyton grabbed his arms and shook him as she was asking him something. Or rather, demanding something.

Lucas eventually told her what she wanted to hear, because she let him go quite abruptly, and turned her face to Brooke. She then swiftly marched towards her, her hands clenched into fists, her eyes so dark that it scared Brooke a little bit. Lucas was following closely behind, looking anguished, but Brooke’s attention was focused on Peyton. She hadn’t looked like that since─

“You fainted again!” she hissed at Brooke.

Brooke stood gaping for a long second, until Lucas had reached them and she could give him a death stare. “You told her?”

Before he could answer, Peyton stepped in, “And he was right to do so!”

“I, erm, I’m gonna leave you two alone,” Lucas mumbled, fleeing towards the house.

Brooke watched as he ran away and turned to her friend, “It’s not what you think.”

“It’s not? Because he just told me that you fainted at his place this morning.”

“Well, yeah that happened but─”

“That makes it three times this week Brooke! You have to tell your parents now!”

“No, you don’t get it. This morning was completely different, it” ─ she stopped for a second, fumbling on her words ─ “it was different.”

“Different how?” Peyton asked her with a frown.

She couldn’t possibly tell her that. It would mean telling her of her dreams about Lucas, and that was unconceivable. “I can’t really explain it, but trust me, it was─”

“No!” her friend shouted, startling her. “You told me yesterday that if it happened again, you would tell your parents!”

“But I’m fine, I swear!”

“You don’t know that!” Peyton’s anger seemed to fade away in an instant; she suddenly looked anguished as she grabbed her shoulders. “You don’t know that,” she repeated in a softer tone, her voice quavering.

Brooke stayed silent for another moment. “I’m not Ellie,” she murmured.

“You don’t know that.”

“I’m not─”

“Anyone could be Ellie. You, me, anyone.”

Ellie was Peyton’s birth mother. She had come into her life a year and a half ago, and although she had been quite hostile at first, Peyton had gradually warmed up to her and bonded with her. And then she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Six months later, she had passed away.

Peyton had been devastated at the time. Sure, she had only known Ellie for a few months, but losing her had deeply wounded her. A year ago, right before summer and at the age of seventeen, she had lost her second mother and had been in a very dark place for several weeks. Brooke had stayed by her side the whole time and had essentially become her roommate for a while, until Peyton seemed to go back to her older self, at the beginning of their school year. 

“Alright,” Brooke sighed. “I’ll talk to them.”

Peyton hugged her, almost crushing her ribs in the process, “I just─ I can’t lose you too.”

“You won’t,” she said, hugging her back. After a few seconds, she freed herself from Peyton’s arms, “You know what, I’m gonna go right now.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Nate’s almost done anyway and you’re here to help him.”

And if she were to face Lucas right now, she would probably rip his head off.

She thought of Lucas' behavior as she went home and waited for her father to come back from work. What was up with him? He hadn’t told Nathan about her fainting, so he obviously knew she didn’t want this information to be known. And yet for some reason, he had blabbered it all to Peyton the minute he had seen her.

Well, she knew the reason, she knew why he couldn’t keep his mouth shut around Peyton. Everyone knew it.

She had to wait until dinner; that was when her father finally came home from his office. She could have told her mother in the meantime, but she had the feeling that she didn’t want to tell this story twice. And at least, that gave her something to talk about at dinner.

“So, erm, I thought you should know that I kind of passed out several times this week. But I’m feeling fine. Mom, can you pass the peas?”

They both stared at her with the same dumbfounded look. “You did what? When was that?” her mother asked.

Her father spoke almost at the same time, “What do you mean, several times?” 

Brooke looked down at her plate, “It happened on Monday, and then yesterday. And also this morning.”

“What?” her mother shouted, startling her. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“I didn’t think it was that bad,” she said with a shrug. “And honestly, I feel fine.”

“I’m calling James,” Ted said, making her look up. “He’ll know what to do.”

Before she could say anything, he left the table. She turned to her mother, whose face was partly covered by her hand. “Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to─”

Victoria’s voice came out as a murmur, “In case you haven’t noticed, lately, your father and I haven’t been talking a lot.” She put her hand down, staring at Brooke. She looked exhausted. It wasn’t just her face; it was her whole demeanor.

“I know.”

“He hasn’t been talking to me,” she repeated, insisting on the first word. “So I really need you to talk to me.”

“Mom, what’s going on with─”

She stopped when her father came back in the room. Victoria sat up straight and suddenly looked less worn out. Ted didn’t look at her though, he sat in front of Brooke and told her that he had talked to James and that he would see her tomorrow morning.

“Wait, who’s James again?” she asked her father, struggling to remember who he was referring to

“I went to college with him, remember? He’s a neurologist in Charlotte.”

“I can’t go to Charlotte tomorrow, I have school! I have cheerleading practice and a student council reunion with Principal Turner and─”

Ted stopped eating and looked at her as if she had gone mad, “I think the principal will understand that this is more important.” 

She didn’t argue further, she knew there was no room for discussion here. And anyway, she might as well get rid of this checkup as soon as possible.

She didn’t sleep well that night; she woke up at 2 am and kept tossing around in her bed, trying her best not to think of Lucas and Peyton talking together and of why it irritated her so much.

At 5 am, her mother told her to get up; they had to leave for Charlotte as soon as possible since it was a three-hour drive. Ted was not coming; he had work he couldn’t cancel. During the trip, Brooke pondered on asking her mother about what was going on between her father and her, but she looked worried enough as she was driving. She could ask her later, when the doctor would have officially confirmed that she was perfectly healthy. Because that was what he was going to say, right?

Her father’s college friend turned out to be a very nice person. He was waiting for them in his office when they reached the hospital. He introduced himself as Dr. James Merrick, and then proceeded to ask her a hundred different questions. He asked, amongst other things, about her medical history, her intake of medication or drugs, and her last period.

“Wait, you think she’s pregnant?” her mother asked, her eyes growing wide in fear.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” he said with a smile, “but from what Ted told me on the phone, we have to rule out a pregnancy. So, Brooke, when was it?”

“Two weeks ago.”

“Oh thank god,” her mother whispered, making Brooke chuckle.

“So, where was I,” Dr Merrick said, looking down at a paper on his desk. “Right, well I think we’re good here.”

“Really?” Brooke asked, full of hope. “Can I go now?”

“Oh no, that was just the beginning. Now I need you to tell me exactly what happened to you on these episodes you’ve had.”

She told him about the tingling, and the buzzing, and the drowsiness. She told him how it had felt different the day before because she hadn’t felt any of these symptoms. She told him that she had had dreams on the first two times, but not on the third. Obviously, with her mother sitting next to her and hanging on to her every word, she didn’t say what, or rather who she had dreamt about.

“Are you sure you had dreams?”

“Positive. Why?”

“Well, people don’t dream when they faint. They dream when they fall asleep.”

“Isn’t that the same? Don’t you fall asleep when you faint?” Brooke asked, puzzled. 

He shook his head, “Not at all. From what you just said, I think what happened to you yesterday was just a vasovagal syncope.”

Brooke frowned and turned to her mother, who looked just as lost as herself. “Vaso-what?”

“Vasovagal syncope. It’s very common, and it’s completely harmless.”

“Oh,” Brooke said with a sigh, “that’s good right?”

“We can say that, yes,” he said with a reassuring smile. “However, what happened to you on Monday and Saturday doesn’t sound like common syncope to me.”

“Then what could it be?” Victoria asked him with a frown.

“Well, it sounds like Brooke is falling asleep, so we have to rule out a couple of diagnoses, including narcolepsy and epilepsy. Unfortunately, in order to do that, we would need to perform, amongst other tests, something called a polysomnography. And for that, we need you to be sleep deprived, so that we can study how your brain reacts when you fall asleep.”

“So we’ll have to come back another day?”

Before he could answer Victoria's question, Brooke asked: “What do you mean by sleep deprived?” 

“We usually ask patients to sleep a maximum of four hours before doing this test.”

“Oh, then I’m definitely sleep deprived," she said with a grin. "Last night I slept like three hours, tops.”

They both looked at her with surprise. “Then we might be able to do it all today. Let me check on that.”

He called a few people, using complicated medical words she had never heard before. After a short while, he told them that they would have to spend the whole day at the hospital, but at least they would be able to run all the tests he had in mind.

He led them to an examination room where Brooke had to change into a hospital gown and then lie down on a bed. Victoria was sitting on a chair on her left, reading a magazine. They were eventually joined by a nurse who could not have been drearier. Her own mother looked like a sunshine next to her. She drew what Brooke thought was a lot of blood, although nurse Dreary explained to her that it was just the usual amount.

Brooke met a lot of people that day. After the nurse, it was a duo of interns who came into the room to do her an electrocardio-something. They put a bunch of sticky dots on her chest, wrists and ankles then wired her to a machine that kept beeping. It printed out a piece of paper that they looked at closely for a long minute. Before they left, they told her it was all good and that she could take off the electrodes. She figured they meant the sticky dots, so she pulled them off her skin and pulled her gown back on her shoulders.

Then another couple of interns came in her room and checked her blood pressure when she was lying down, then sitting down, then standing up. She was prepared to have it taken while she was hopping on one foot but that never happened.

After a short while, they took her to the third floor of the hospital and insisted that she stayed on her bed, although she told them several times that she could walk. They told her she had to do an MRI for them to check her brain. It was like a long, white and cold tunnel; she stayed in it for around ten minutes and did her best to stay still as the interns had asked her. It wasn’t that easy though, not with the loud noises the machine around her kept making.

One of the intern’s voice came from a speaker in the machine, “I’m sorry but we really need you to stop moving for this to work.”

“I’m trying,” Brooke murmured with impatience.

“We can put some music if you want. What would you like?”

She gave it a thought. “Norah Jones,” she replied, saying the first thing that came to her mind.

She stopped fidgeting when a soothing music filled the room. She closed her eyes and focused on it, forgetting about the thudding sound of the tunnel around her. When it was done, they took her out of the machine and brought her back to her room.

After an hour or two, Dr Merrick came with a nurse who fortunately looked merrier than the previous one. The nurse, who told her she was named Anna, put a kind of helmet on her head. It wasn’t really a helmet though, it was a bunch of sticky dots ─ or electrodes, as the interns had called them ─ connected together through wires; the ensemble took the shape of a helmet. She then put something around her left index finger and told her it was to check her pulse and oxygen level.

“So now, what do we do?” Brooke asked them, looking down at the device on her finger.

“Now," the doctor answered, "we wait until you fall asleep, and we check your brain activity.”

It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep; after all, she had barely slept at all the night before. When she woke up, her mother was still sitting on her chair, reading another magazine. She told her she had slept for three hours. Nurse Anna came back into the room, helped her out of the apparatus on her head and told her she could put her clothes on now. She then accompanied them to Dr Merrick’s office, where he was waiting for them. Brooke and her mother sat down, while Nurse Anna was standing up next to the doctor.

“Well, these results are good,” he told them with a smile, looking down at a bunch of paper on his desk, including what looked like her brain imagery.

“What does that mean?” Victoria asked him.

“It means there’s nothing wrong with Brooke. The MRI is normal, the polysomnography is also normal, there’s no sign of neurological or cardiac disorder at all.”

“So then why did I fall asleep like that?” Brooke asked him with a frown. 

“Probably a mix of fatigue and dehydration. But really, your results are perfectly normal.”

Her mother seemed relieved. “Thank you so much James, this… Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a cheerful tone. “I’m just glad for you. With my job, it’s not often that I can give good news to patients. Now Victoria, before Brooke can go, you still have to sign some papers, Anna” ─he nodded at her─ “will walk you through it.”

Victoria stood up and followed the nurse out of the office. Brooke watched as Dr Merrick was typing something on his computer, probably an e-mail for her father. He seemed like a trustworthy person, and anyway, he was a doctor, wasn’t he? That meant he had to keep secret anything she asked him to, right?

“Dr Merrick?” she asked tentatively.

He stopped typing and glanced up at her, “Yes Brooke?”

“There’s something I haven’t told you, about those dreams I had. But only because I don’t want my parents to know about it.”

“Oh. Well of course, I won’t tell them if you don’t want me to.”

“And no one’s listening right now?” she asked, eying warily around them.

“No,” he chuckled, “no one is spying on us.”

She sighed. “Alright, so here’s the thing…”

She told him everything about her dreams; well, not that Lucas was naked but she told him how she had dreamt of Lucas’ real bedroom when she had never been there and explained to him that that was why she had fainted the day before.

“So, what do you think? How can that be possible?”

He seemed to give it a thought, “Are you sure you’ve never been in his room? Maybe you went once and─”

“No, honestly, I had never been there, I’m sure of that.”

“And how well do you know him?”

“Know who?”

“Lucas, the boy in your dreams.”

“Oh. Erm, a bit. I’ve known him for many years, but we’re not friends or anything, why?”

“Sometimes when you know someone really well, your brain can manage to guess certain characteristics about that person. To put it simply, it’s like an advanced intuition.”

“But I told you, I don’t know him that well.”

“At some level, you do. Brooke, a person’s brain does a lot of work without them realizing it. Even now, it’s taking in unconscious stimuli of everything around you. So, even if you think you don’t know him, it sounds like your brain has been noticing him and recording information on him for a while.”

“So how do I stop my brain from doing that?” He laughed at that, though she couldn’t see why he would. This didn’t seem funny at all to her. “I’m serious, how do I do that?”

“I’m afraid there’s no medication for that yet.”

He gave her another smile and went back to his typing. Her mother came back after a couple of minutes; Brooke stood up, shook the doctor’s hand, thanked him for his time and left with Victoria.

She slept through most of the trip back to Tree Hill, but before she did that, took the time to text Peyton and tell her she was completely fine.

The next day, when Brooke went to school and saw Peyton at her locker, she knew right away that her best friend was back to her usual self. She started telling her about everything that had happened the day before but stopped when she saw Lucas standing next to his own locker, at the end of the hall, speaking with Haley. She felt a sudden surge of anger and before she knew it, told Peyton she’d be back in a minute and strode to where he was.

“You!” she shouted when she was behind him.

He turned around, startled, and looked weirdly relieved to see her. “Hi Brooke.”

She didn’t pay attention to Haley’s friendly wave and kept scowling at Lucas, “Don’t hi me! Why the hell would you go blabbering to Peyton, huh?”

Haley’s smile quickly faded away, “I think I’m gonna leave you two─”

“Oh no,” Brooke told her with a fierce look, “you can stay, this won’t take long.” She turned to Lucas again, “So? What the hell happened to you to become so talkative all of a sudden?”

He looked utterly confused. “What are you talking about Brooke?”

“You shouldn’t have told her that I fainted! I didn’t want her to know, and I never told you I wanted her to know!”

“But… She was worried and─”

“So what? You don’t tell Nathan but you tell her the second you see her? I mean I know you could do anything for her, I get it, but can’t you restrain yourself just a little bit?”

Lucas was speechless; he turned to Haley who shared the same expression on her face then looked back at her, “Brooke, that’s not─ I just thought you wouldn’t want anyone to know but I didn’t think you would mind if it was Peyton.”

“Well you thought wrong!”

“Come on Brooke,” he chuckled, which only made her angrier, “you guys tell each other everything!”

“Says who?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips. “You? You don’t know me, so stop acting like you do!”

She turned on her heels and walked away from them, ignoring him as he was yelling her name.

Dr Merrick was wrong. He had to be wrong. There was no way her brain had been observing Lucas in secret and even if it were the case, there had to be a solution to stop it. She needed it to stop.

At lunch break, she ditched on Peyton and her squad and told them she had to study on the lessons she had missed the day before. She did go to the library, but only because she was looking for the answers that Dr Merrick couldn’t give her.

She wanted to go straight to the computers but did a little detour when she saw Nathan sitting at a table with Haley. She was reading a book while he was writing on a notebook.

“Hi,” she said, stopping by their table. 

They both looked up at her; Nathan cracked up a smile. “Oh, Tornado Brooke.”

“What are you doing?” she asked him, peeking at his paper.

“Studying,” he said with a shrug.

“During lunch break?”

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you I was struggling with my grades?”

“Erm, yeah you did.” But she never thought he would be studying during his lunch break too. “Wait, what did you call me?”

“Tornado Brooke,” he repeated with a smirk.

“You haven’t called me that since 6th grade.”

“That’s because I thought you had settled down.” He turned to Haley, who looked confused at the nickname, “Brooke used to have major fits of rage.”

She still didnt get why he was using this old nickname. “But why─”

“Didn’t you lash out at my brother this morning?” he asked with a smirk.

“That’s not funny Nathan,” Haley told him with a light punch on his arm, “he feels…” She stopped and looked up at Brooke with hesitation. “He didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Hurt me?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow. “He didn’t hurt me, he pissed me off.”

Haley didn’t seem convinced by that, “But you looked” ─ Nathan, with an appalling lack of discretion, kicked her below the table ─ “you know what, never mind,” she said with a polite smile.

“Well, I have to study,” Brooke told them, pointing at the computers at the other end of the room. “See you guys later.”

She made a stop at the psychology aisle and picked a couple of books that seemed to be about the unconscious mind. That was what Dr Merrick had told her, unconscious stimuli, but somehow, she felt that there was more to it than just “advanced intuition”, as he had explained.

She went to a computer and contemplated the keyboard for a while. What was she supposed to search for? She tried “advanced intuition” first. 229 000 000 results. She sighed, took a pencil and a notebook out of her bag and started taking notes.

At some point, and without realizing it, she stopped writing about what she was reading, and started scribbling down. She was still reading articles, mostly about people who claimed to have super-powers, but she didn’t think it was worth noting that down on paper.

“Brooke?”

She raised her head to the person standing next to her. “Mouth! Hi!”

“Hi,” Mouth said with a grin, then glanced at her paper. “What are you drawing?”

“I’m not drawing” ─she looked down at her notebook─ “anything. Or maybe I am.”

She had drawn a lamp. Of course, it was not just any lamp; it was the one from her dream, the rabbit-shaped lamp she had envisioned in Lucas’ bedroom. It was exactly as she remembered it, down to the small chip on the left ear sticking out of the shade.

“Are you okay Brooke?”

She looked up at Mouth, who seemed genuinely concerned for her. He had already asked her that same question at Nathan’s party, but unfortunately, she couldn’t possibly tell him─

Wait, she could tell him.

She couldn’t tell Peyton, because of the whole Lucas situation. And anyway, from the way she had freaked out with just the fainting, she would definitely get her to see a shrink if she told her about the dreams.

She couldn’t tell Nathan either, because the dreams were about his brother.

But Mouth? Sure, he was friends with Lucas, and they regularly hung out together, but she was also friends with him. She trusted him as much as she trusted Nathan. And she knew he wouldn’t make fun of her if she told him about her dreams.

“I don’t know,” she said with a frown. “Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” he replied quickly, though looking taken aback. He took the nearest chair and dragged it next to her. “What’s up?”

Brooke told him, just like she had told everything to Dr Merrick. She did omit a few details, like Lucas’ nakedness, but she told him about everything else. Her first dream, her second dream, how she had realized that the room in her first dream was an exact replica of Lucas’ bedroom and how she had fainted afterwards and had had a panic attack.

“Wait a minute,” he said with a frown, “how could you dream of his room if─”

“I don’t know! The doctor I saw said this could happen when it’s someone you know very well, but come on, Lucas? I could probably guess this stuff about Peyton, but not Lucas. Do you think I’m crazy?”

“No, I don’t think you're crazy.” She sighed with relief. “But it’s weird, I mean, how is that even possible? Just… Do you remember those dreams? I mean, do you remember them in detail?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I wrote them in my journal. Why?”

“I don’t know about you, but usually when I wake up, I can tell what I dreamt about for about five minutes. And then it gets fuzzy and by the end of the morning I forget about it.”

She let that sink in. “You’re right, that’s usually what happens to me too. But for some reason, I can still tell you what happened in those dreams. I mean not down to every detail, but I’ve got them down on paper.” She looked at the time, “Shoot, we have to leave. Hey, are you free tonight? Can we meet after school, say around 6?”

“Sure, we can go to the Café.”

“Thanks again, Mouth,” she said with a bright smile, squeezing his forearm. “Oh, and if you tell anyone about this, I will kill you.”

The rest of the day didn’t go fast enough; after her conversation with Mouth, she had felt a weight lifting off her shoulders. Just talking to someone about her weird episodes had seemed to relieve her a bit.

She had asked to meet at 6 pm, so that she would have enough time to go home, get her journal, make a copy of the pages that detailed her dreams, double check that there wasn’t any entry other than the dreams, and head to Karen's Café.

Mouth was already there when she arrived; she sat next to him, taking the pages out of her bag and putting them, face down, on the table.

“Remember," she told him in a solemn voice, "this is very sensitive information and you can’t─”

“Oh Brooke,” he said, rolling his eyes, “just hand it over already!”

She was about to but froze when she saw the waiter coming over. “Are you kidding me?” she hissed at Mouth with a glare. “Lucas is working here tonight?”

“So?”

“So this” ─she pointed at the pages on the table─ “is all about him!”

“It’s okay Brooke,” he said with a chuckle, “it’s not like I’m gonna read it aloud for him.”

They stopped talking as Lucas reached their table. “Brooke,” he said with obvious hesitation, “what can I get you?”

“Oh,” she sneered, refusing to look at him, “now you’re asking what I want?”

She noticed Mouth frowning in confusion, looking back and forth at them. “Erm, is something wrong?” he asked them.

“Everything’s fine,” she said curtly, looking up at Lucas. “Now will you please leave me with my friend?”

Lucas frowned and looked like he was about to say something, but he changed his mind and walked away.

“Wow,” Mouth said next to her, “that was harsh.”

“Maybe,” she mumbled, “but he deserved it. Now, back to our secret meeting.” She slipped him the pages.

He started by the first dream. He hadn’t even read the first paragraph that he exclaimed, “Holy shit! Brooke, you didn’t tell me it was a wet dream!”

“Oh my god, really?” she hissed at him, looking nervously around them and noticing with relief that no one had paid attention to him. “Why don’t you say that even louder?”

“Sorry,” he whispered, his eyes grown wide, “but I wasn’t expecting that.”

“And it wasn’t a wet dream, he just… He happened to be naked.”

Mouth started laughing but suddenly stopped when he saw the threatening look on her face. He went back to his reading and reached the end of the first dream. After a few minutes, he was done reading it all.

“That’s…” he murmured slowly, amazed. “You had really never been in his room before that dream?”

“No, why?”

“Because even I can see from what you wrote that it’s a perfect description of Lucas’ room. Well almost perfect, there’s that lamp─ wait, was that your drawing?”

“Yeah. That freaking rabbit keeps showing up.”

“What do you mean?”

Oh right, she hadn’t told him about the rabbit that she had seen all summer. So she did, even though she still couldn’t see the connection between that and her dreams about Lucas.

“Okay…” Mouth murmured, looking down at the pages. “Are you sure you had never been in Lucas’ room?”

“I think I would remember.”

“It’s just that… This is so detailed, Brooke. It almost seems like, like… A memory.”

She frowned, “But it is a memory. It’s what I remember of my dream.”

“No, I mean you wrote this like it really happened to you.”

“That’s how it feels like,” she said with a shrug. “But it’s impossible! And Lucas was so different in my dreams.”

“I know, I mean he was naked.”

“Hey!" she cried, punching his chest. "No teasing allowed!”

He chuckled, “Alright, alright. So anyway, what happened on Sunday? You said you fainted in his room, right?”

“Yeah, I think my brain just... short-circuited. I freaked out and I passed out, and then I freaked out some more. And this time, I really fainted, there was no weird dream.”

“And you didn’t have the same symptoms too before you fainted, right?”

“Exactly,” she nodded, “which is why the doc said that I hadn’t really fainted when I had the dreams. So, on Sunday, I fainted, and─” She froze, suddenly remembering something. “Wait a second,” she murmured, skimming through the first dream. “I broke his lamp,” she muttered in disbelief. “When I fainted,” she said, looking up at Mouth, “I dropped his lamp and it broke. And in the first dream, Lucas tells me that I already broke his last lamp.”

Mouth stayed silent for a minute, reading through the first dream again. “Let me get this straight. On Monday, you have a dream where Lucas tells you that you broke his lamp, past tense, and then it actually happens, in real life, seven days later? And look, here” ─he pointed at another paragraph─ “he asked you for the date, why would he do that? And then there” ─he fumbled through the pages to get the one he was talking about─ “he tells you about that Elton John movie and tells you it came out two years ago, but I saw it last month!”

She could see how odd it was, but it still didn’t make any sense to her, “What’s your point?”

“I don’t know, maybe you’re just time travelling?”

They stared at each other for a second, and both burst out laughing, this time getting attention from the other clients. “Right Mouth, now how about a realistic explanation?”

“I know, but hey, wouldn’t that be really cool?”

She chuckled, shaking her head, “In another universe, maybe.”

“Okay, so, what happened after you fainted on Sunday?”

“Nothing,” she said with a shrug. “I went to Nathan’s to clean his house, Lucas was there too, he tattled to Peyton, and so I went to the doctor’s yesterday.”

“Wait a minute, is that why you sound so hurt?”

“I don’t─ I’m not hurt,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m mad, because he told Peyton something that he was supposed to keep for himself.”

“Did you ask him to keep it a secret?” Mouth asked tentatively. 

“No,” she admitted, looking at Lucas from afar. He was reading a book, sitting behind the counter. “But he should have known.”

“How?” he asked her with surprise. “You said yourself you don’t know him that much. And anyway, Peyton and you? You’ve always been attached at the hip. Honestly, I would have told Peyton too. I won’t,” he added quickly when she frowned, “because you made it clear that this has to stay secret.”

“I… We’re not here to discuss that”, she said with a dismissive hand wave. “We’re here to figure out what the hell is happening to me.”

They stayed for almost an hour, reading the books she had taken at the library and taking notes. After that, they decided to call it a day and to meet again the next day, same place, same time.

That night, she didn’t sleep very well. She kept thinking about what Mouth had told her about Lucas. She didn’t even know what he had spoken about with Peyton. Part of her didn’t want to know though, she felt uncomfortable just thinking about it.

She eventually asked Peyton, the next day, during their lunch break. Peyton was surprised at first but told her what had happened.

“I knew you didn’t tell me the whole story so I was worried, and when I arrived at Nathan’s I asked Lucas what was going on. He didn’t want to tell me at first, but I said I’d run him over if he didn’t.”

So, they had just talked about her? Somehow, that seemed to lift her spirits. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. To be fair, I really didn’t leave him any choice, B.”

“Why are you saying that?”

“Because I’ve seen the way you’ve been glaring at him. And he tried to talk to you twice this morning, but you ignored him.” Brooke looked down at her plate, “Come on Brooke, it’s not like he did something awful.”

“I know,” she admitted reluctantly, “but it feels like…”

“Like what?”

“Nothing.”

It felt like he had betrayed her. Which was insane, because to betray someone, you need to gain their trust first, but… The Lucas from her dreams, she could just tell, from the way he looked at her and the way he talked to her, that he would never do anything to hurt her.

Hurt? Wasn’t that what Mouth and Haley had told her? So that was it, she was just hurt? Over a fictitious version of Lucas? Had she seriously transferred her expectations from Dream Lucas to Real Lucas?

Oh no, she really had done that. Which meant she needed to apologize to Real Lucas. 

She didn’t run into him that afternoon, or maybe she just avoided him. Either way, when she met Mouth that night at the Café, she hadn’t seen him and this time, he wasn’t working there.

“I took my laptop,” Mouth told her as she was sitting next to him. “I figured we could use it.”

She continued reading her book; Mouth however used his computer to find about other people claiming to have dreamed about places that existed but where they had never been to.

“I can’t find anything," he muttered after a while. "There’s just a million stories about people saying that they have prophetic dreams but nothing on stories like yours.”

She sighed, closing her book, “There’s nothing in here that can help us." Her stomach growled. "I’m getting something to eat, are you hungry?”

“I’m good,” he said, his eyes stuck on his laptop screen.

She got up and walked to the counter, waiting for someone to take her order. Karen came out of the kitchen and greeted her with a bright smile. “Brooke! It’s nice to see you!” She put down a magazine on the counter and said in a lower voice, “How are you since last time?”

Keith had definitely told her about her fainting. “I’m fine,” she said with a smile.

“So, what can I get you?”

“A cookie, please. And a tea.”

“Right away,” she replied, turning around to infuse the tea.

Brooke’s eyes landed on the magazine; she took it in her hands, flipping its pages at random. It was a furniture magazine.

She froze, her finger landing on a specific image of a specific page.

It was impossible. Simply impossible. She must have been dreaming again.

“Mouth!” she shouted, jerking her head back at him.

He glanced up at her, and seemed to immediately grasp the urgency in her voice as he jumped on his feet and rushed to her side, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s, it's...”

“It’s what?”

She grabbed his chin and pulled it down, making him look at the page she had left open. At the photo of the lamp that her finger was furiously tapping on. His eyes grew wide and he looked back at her, “That’s the same one! The one you drew! The one from─”

“M─ my dream!” she stuttered, feeling suddenly dizzy. “How is that possible?”

They both looked up as Karen put down a cup of tea in front of her. “There you go. Oh,” she said, looking at Brooke’s finger still pressing on the white rabbit-shaped lamp, “do you guys like this one?”

Mouth and she reacted at the same time, “Huh?”

Karen turned the magazine so that she wasn’t looking at it upside down. She glanced at Brooke then back at the lamp, “Alright, he should like it.”

“He?” Brooke repeated. “Who’s he?”

“Lucas. He broke his lamp, so I’m looking for a replacement. This one should do,” she said with a grin.

They both looked at Karen as she walked away to the kitchen, then stared at each other in disbelief.

Wait a minute, did that mean that she was…

No, it couldn’t.

Or could it?


	5. Day breaks

A week had passed since the last time she had spoken to Mouth. After Karen had decided in front of them to buy that damn rabbit-shaped lamp, she had tried her best not to run into him.

She knew what he would say to her, and she simply didn’t want to hear it. That was also the reason why, a week ago, she had dashed off from the Café before Mouth could say anything. It was also why she had been ignoring his texts and calls. She had replied once, the week before, to tell him that she didn’t want to talk about this anymore, whatever “this” was. She didn’t enjoy ignoring him, especially since she had sought out his help in the first place, but she didn’t want to think about “this” anymore.

Avoiding Mouth had not been that easy; they often ran into each other at school, so she had had to take different routes to get to class.

This morning, she had once again wormed her way to homeroom. Peyton was walking besides her, telling her about the catastrophic date she had gone through during the weekend. Brooke had told her best friend that she was avoiding someone, though she hadn’t told her whom. If she had, then she would also have had to explain why she was avoiding Mouth, as he appeared to be the last person Brooke would want to avoid in their school.

After taking a turn to the left, Brooke suddenly froze as she recognized Mouth’s hair from afar, walking swiftly towards them. She grabbed Peyton’s arm and ran off in the other direction, dragging her confused friend along. Her eyes stopped on the girls’ restroom on her right; she flung the door open and unceremoniously threw her friend inside, before closing the door behind them.

“What the hell was that about?” Peyton asked her, bewildered.

Brooke looked around them; all the stalls were empty, yet they weren’t alone. There were three different groups of girls hanging out there, chatting together.

“Nothing. I just want to talk about” ─she quickly thought of an excuse─ “my dad. He told me yesterday he bought the house in L.A.”

“And you need to tell me this in the toilet because?”

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone. Anyway, that’s good news, right? He’s buying us a vacation house, so it can only be a good sign, right?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, for some reason, my mom doesn’t agree.”

Peyton looked surprised, “She told you that?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “But she looks even more depressed than before. I don’t know, maybe she hates it? I mean, she didn’t seem to have a good time there this summer.”

“Yeah maybe that’s just─”

Peyton didn’t get to finish her sentence. Someone had just barged in, prompting the other groups of girls to shout at the intruder, who happened to be Mouth. He startled for a second, probably not expecting to see this many people, then looked straight at Brooke.

“Hi, can we talk?”

Before she could say anything, a redhead on her right marched towards him. “Get out, you perve!” She opened the door and pushed him out of the room.

Brooke and Peyton watched as she went back to her friends, then looked at each other and struggled to keep in fits of laughter.

They left the restroom after Brooke had checked twice that Mouth was nowhere around, then headed to their classroom. Everyone else was already there, including Nathan and Lucas who were talking together at the end of the room.

She still had not apologized to Lucas for lashing out at him. Since Mouth had rightfully pointed out that she had no reason to be mad at Lucas, she had tried to talk to him, but… She just didn’t know how to. She somehow felt closer to the Lucas she had seen in her dreams ─ yes _dreams_ , because there was no other possible explanation to what had happened to her, none at all ─ than to the one standing right now in front of Nathan.

When she walked over to them, he fled away to his seat, just like he used to around Peyton. Maybe he would be easier to approach without Peyton on her side? She looked back at Nathan who was now talking to Peyton.

“So, we’re still on for movie night?” Peyton asked him.

“Sure. My mom will be out.”

Once a month, the three of them would get together on a Friday night to watch a movie. Nathan was supposed to host this month but a few days ago had told them he wasn’t sure he could do so.

Brooke noticed that he furtively glanced at his brother before asking her, “You still haven’t talked to Luke?”

“No.”

He shook his head, looking exasperated. “Brooke…”

“I know I have to, alright? It’s just that I’m─”

“Too stubborn,” Peyton said with a grin.

“Like a mule.” Nathan added in the same tone.

She glared at them. “Wow, you guys are the best friends I could wish for,” she mumbled as she went to her seat.

Their grins got even wider; Brooke was terrible at pretending to be mad at them.

During first period, Brooke kept thinking about Mouth’s abridged intervention from this morning. She couldn’t understand why, despite her firm refusal of speaking about whatever had happened to her, he kept trying to talk to her. Part of her hoped that the way he had been thrown out this morning had convinced him to stay away.

It turned out that it had not convinced him at all, to the contrary. That very same day, he approached her as she was having lunch with Peyton and the rest of her squad. She hadn’t noticed him coming over to their table; what kind of ninja skills had he used?

“Brooke, we need to talk,” he said, sitting between her and another cheerleader. “But, erm, I don’t want to intrude,” he told the other girls with an awkward smile. They didn’t seem to mind since they went back to their lunches.

She stared at her lunch, “No, we don’t.”

“Yes, we do.”

“No, we don’t.” She sighed and threw a quick look around her before holding his gaze, “I told you, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Thanks for helping me, but now I just need you to drop it.”

His voice got lower, so that only she could hear him, “Look, I get that you’re freaking out, but─”

“I’m not freaking out,” she hissed. He clearly looked like he didn’t believe a word of that. “I’m not!” she repeated. “Peyton,” she said looking at her, “tell him I’m not.”

Peyton’s eyes went back and forth between Mouth and her. “Wait a second, you’re avoiding Mouth?” she asked in disbelief. “Why would you avoid him?”

Brooke knew she would ask her that. She could either find an excuse and, let’s be honest, blatantly lie to Peyton, or she could agree to talk to Mouth. “Fine,” she said, turning to face him. “Karen’s Café, 6 o’clock tonight.”

This appeared to please him, as he smiled from ear to ear and left to eat with his friends. Brooke briefly watched as he sat next to Lucas, who seemed to be in a heated conversation with Haley.

“So, are you gonna tell me why you were avoiding Mouth?”

She glanced at Peyton, “No, I can’t. But it doesn’t matter now, since I’m seeing him tonight.”

Peyton looked half-convinced as she replied, “I guess, yeah.”

Thankfully, she didn’t bring up that subject anymore. That afternoon, Brooke wished time could flow slower, or even stop for a little while. She knew what Mouth would tell her, and part of her didn’t want to hear it. He had been right: she was freaking out. But who wouldn’t be, when they learned that─ no, she didn’t want to think about it.

She arrived first at the Café and sat at the nearest table. She noticed with relief that Lucas wasn’t working tonight. Haley was waitressing; she was cleaning a table when she saw Brooke. She quickly finished her task and walked swiftly to her table, asking her what she could get for her.

“A coffee.”

Haley nodded and turned on her heels, before slowing down and stopping after a few steps. She looked over her shoulder at Brooke, seemed to hesitate for a second and finally decided to come back to her table and sit across from her.

“I don’t want to butt in,” she said with worry in her eyes, “and Luke will kill me if he knows I’m doing this, but, erm… He feels really bad about what happened, when you, er─”

“Yelled at him?”

“Yeah.”

Brooke frowned. “But why does he feel bad? I’m the one who shouted at him.”

“He thinks he messed up when he talked to Peyton and he doesn’t know how to apologize to you. Actually,” she added with a sigh, “he thinks you won’t forgive him at all.”

“But that’s ridiculous, I’m the one who should─” she stopped abruptly, remembering that she was telling all this to Lucas’ best friend.

Hale’s eyes twinkled. “Let’s make a deal. If you don’t tell him what I just told you, then I won’t tell him whatever you tell me.”

Brooke pondered on it for a few seconds and realized that Haley was the best person who could help her. “Deal,” she said, shaking her hand with a crooked smile. “So here’s the thing: he doesn’t have to apologize to me, I’m the one who should.”

This seemed to confuse Haley. “Why?”

“It’s just… I was mad at him, but for the wrong reasons. And I see that now, but I just… I don’t know how to tell him that I’m sorry.”

“Just say the words, Brooke,” Haley said with an encouraging voice. 

“No, I mean, he keeps avoiding me at school and there’s no way I can just walk up to him and ask him to grab coffee with me!”

“Oh, but then why don’t I just tell him─”

“No!” Brooke shouted, startling her. “You said you wouldn’t say anything.”

“Fine, fine, I won’t, I swear. But… Okay, so if you two were to meet somewhere, say outside of school, would it be easier for you?”

She thought about it for a second. Sure, if they were stuck in a room with nowhere to run to, she wouldn’t have any other choice but to talk to him, no matter how hard her brain kept picturing him naked or calling her his pretty girl. “Probably, yeah.”

Haley’s grin widened at that. “Alright, I can work with that.”

Brooke’s face fell. “What do you mean, work with that?”

“Oh no, don’t worry, I won’t tell him a thing, but maybe─ Mouth! Hi!”

She looked up at her right and saw that Mouth was walking over to them. Haley exchanged a few words with him then got up and said that she had to get back to work.

“Do you have your journal?” Mouth asked her as he sat across from her. 

“Yeah,” she said, reaching for her bag on the floor. She took out a sheet protector, in which she had carefully folded the photocopied pages of her journal that concerned her “dreams”.

“Alright,” ─Mouth looked at the pages then back at her─ “let’s summarize this. September 10th you have a, erm─”

“Dream.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, we’re still going for that version?”

“Let’s just do that for now,” she shrugged. “I had a dream that took place in Lucas’ bedroom.”

“Lucas’ exact bedroom”, he corrected, “even though you had never been there before. During that dream, he tells you not to hit him with his lamp, which looks just like a rabbit, because you already broke his last one. And then he asks you what date it is, and says that it means that it is the first time. And then seven days later─”

“I went to his room and actually broke his lamp,” Brooke mumbled, gazing down at her intertwined fingers.

“And a week ago, Karen decided to replace it with the rabbit shaped lamp that you saw in your dream,” he said, with air quotes on the last word. “It all fits Brooke.”

She sighed, looking up at him. “I know,” she admitted.

Mouth’s voice got lower, “You didn’t have a dream, Brooke, you saw the freaking future!” He sounded incredulous, as if he himself could hardly believe it. “You said so yourself in your second, erm… Episode. Look,” ─he pointed at a specific paragraph on a journal page─ “you wrote that he looked older. And he said that Rocketman was out a couple years ago, but it was just a few weeks ago for us!”

“No,” she said, slightly shaking her head, “I didn’t see anything.”

“You still think it was all just a coincidence?”

“No, I mean… I don’t know.” She let out another sigh, “But I do know that I didn’t see anything. You said so yourself, all this” ─she waved her hand over the pages spread on their table─ “sounds like a memory.”

She stopped for a second, thinking about what she was about to say. Was she going crazy? Was Mouth going crazy too, because of her? She had gone through many medical exams and she had been told that she was just fine, but maybe what she needed was a shrink?

No, she didn’t need one. Somehow, deep down, she knew she wasn’t going nuts. She was just going through something very… unusual.

“I didn’t see it, Mouth, it happened to me.”

He looked like he finally understood what she was thinking, “So, what you mean is that you didn’t see the future, you went in it.”

“Which is impossible! People don’t do that in real life. In books or movies, sure, but not in real life!”

Mouth wasn’t as adamant. “We don’t know that.”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“I mean, there’s got to be stuff we don’t know about, that the government hides. Do you know what’s in area 51?”

Brooke rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, let’s get serious here.”

“We’re talking about time travel Brooke,” he replied with a shrug, “anything is possible.”

“But if that’s really what’s happening to me, then… It doesn’t make any sense. How can I be dating Lucas in the future? It can’t be.”

“And why not?”

She stumbled at that. “It just can’t. Wait, if we’re saying that time travel is possible, then, erm… Could I be going in a different world?”

Mouth was confused. “A different what?”

“You know, like a parallel dimension or whatever─”

He clicked his finger, “Oh, you mean an alternate universe. Like in Lost.” He noticed her puzzled look and asked, “You’ve never watched it?”

“Just a few episodes.”

“Well in season five─ no wait, I think it was season six. I can check that real quick,” he said, taking out his phone.

“What’s your point, Mouth?” she asked with impatience.

He stopped tapping away and looked up at her. “You’re right, it doesn’t matter. Well, at some point, there’s an alternate timeline where the plane didn’t crash. And Desmond─ that’s one of the characters, well he has the ability to move from one timeline to the other. So,” he added when Brooke looked like she still didn’t get it, “maybe you’re our Desmond.”

“Sure, I could roll with that.” And it certainly would explain why she was with Lucas in the future. It wasn’t really their future, just an alternate one.

To her disappointment, Mouth shook his head, “Yeah, except it’s probably not what’s going on.”

“Why not?”

“Because so far, it all fits. It fits too much for an alternate future.”

“But how do I make sure of that?” she asked with a sigh. “How do I confirm that I’m not just having weirdly accurate dreams?”

“You’re not saying those were just─”

“It’s kinda hard to believe, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it is, but… Okay, fine, then just look for the date.”

“Huh?”

“During your next, erm, episode, just check the date.”

“But that wouldn’t prove anything. I could just dream that I’m in the future without actually being there.”

“You’re right,” he said, scratching his head. “Well then I don’t” ─he froze as he looked at her journal’s pages─ “know… Wait, you journal everything that goes on in your life.”

Where was he going with this? “So?”

He looked up at her with an excited look, “How long have you been doing that?”

“I started in middle school, but how does─”

“And how long do you plan on doing that?”

“I don’t know, a while?”

“What are you gonna do with them, when you go to college, are you gonna throw them away?”

“Are you nuts? I can’t do that, they’re way too precious to just─ Oh.” Mouth’s grin broadened. “You want me to check my journals during my next thingy?”

“Episode,” he corrected.

She made a face. “I don’t know, episode sounds medical, like I’m going crazy.”

“Alright,” he chuckled, “so let’s say travel instead.”

“Hypothetical travel.” 

“Yes, yes,” he said a bit dismissively, “hypothetical. So, during your next hypothetical travel, just read your journals.”

It still didn’t sound feasible to her. “But how do I get to them? I don’t know where they’ll be, and it’s not like I leave them in plain sight!”

Mouth thought about it for a second, “Who else knows about your journals?”

“Peyton.”

“Does Peyton know─ I mean, could she know in the future where your journals are?”

She shrugged. “If someone knows, it’s gotta be her.”

“Alright, so that’s the plan.”

Brooke frowned. “Can we even call that a plan? I mean for it to work, I have to arrive exactly where my journals are hidden, then talk to Peyton, and then have time to read said journals.”

Mouth agreed on that but stated that they didn’t have any other solution for now. He would think about it though.

That night, after bidding goodbye to Mouth, she went home to have dinner alone with her mother. She had expected her father to be home by dinner that day, so that they would celebrate the new house. However, as her mother explained to her, he had been too busy at work.

When she went to bed, she thought about Mouth’s plan, and wondered if she would be able to pull it off. It relied on too many factors she couldn’t control. She didn’t know when, or even if it would happen again. It could be in a week, or a month, or even never!

It turned out that her next hypothetical travel, as she had put it, didn’t happen after a week or a month. It happened the very next day, at school, during 2nd period with Mrs Campbell, her science teacher. 

She knew it was coming. She was reading page 34 of her book, as asked by their teacher, when she started hearing a voice. It sounded like a kid’s voice, humming a tone she didn’t recognize, coming from afar. She instinctively looked around, though she knew there was no kid in the room.

About thirty seconds after that, she felt a tingle starting at the tip of her fingers and toes, creeping up her hands and feet. And then a low, buzzing sound started ringing in her ears. It all lasted for a minute or so. She hesitated; should she ask Mrs Campbell to get out of class? No, she would never accept that, especially from Brooke; that teacher had never liked her and had several times stated that it was a mystery to her how Brooke had ever been elected president of anything. Maybe she could pretend that she had a headache or something? That way she wouldn’t─

It was too late to ask now, as she suddenly felt lethargic. The last thing she thought, before closing her eyes, was that she was going to be in trouble with her teacher.

When she opened her eyes, she was still sitting on a chair, but she knew right away that she wasn’t in her classroom anymore. Her head was resting on her folded arms. She lifted it up, sat up straight, and looked down at her hands. She was sitting at what looked like a dining table. Her right hand was holding a pencil, her left one had an eraser in it. Underneath it, there was a sketchbook. Brooke dropped what she was holding and grabbed the book. There was a drawing of a cocktail dress. She would have done anything to get that dress in real life, she thought.

She put it down, stood up and looked around her; she had never been in this place. She didn’t recognize the furniture, though she did think it had been tastefully decorated. There were a bunch of pictures on the walls and she was about to look at them when she heard someone humming nearby.

Brooke went towards the sound; she left the dining room and walked into a spacious living room. It really was a kid’s voice. There was a child, sitting on the floor, using the coffee table to write something on paper. As she came closer, she realized that he wasn’t writing, he was drawing.

He looked up and gave her a wide smile as he saw her looking at his drawing. “Did you finish your work?”

She blinked, then kneeled next to him. He looked… Well, he looked somehow awfully familiar. She didn’t know how old he was, but probably no older than 6. He had blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked with a little frown, looking genuinely worried about her lack of reaction.

“Yeah, erm, who are you?”

He froze, looking confused for a moment, then heartily laughed, making her smile. “You’re being funny again Aunt Brooke.”

Her smile disappeared right away. “Aunt Brooke?” 

He didn’t notice her bemusement and went back to his drawing. Brooke noticed that he had made another one and took it in her right hand. It was signed “Jamie”. She looked at the little boy, then at the drawing again; so his name was Jamie?

“That one’s for you,” he said without looking up, as he was still very focused on his current drawing.

“Oh,” she said a bit awkwardly, “thanks.” It represented a house, with a garden, a huge sun and an apple tree. “Wow,” she said as she was impressed, “this is a great drawing. Remind me, how old are you again?”

He lifted his left hand and stuck out four fingers, “And a half.”

Four and half, then. But that still didn’t tell her who he was. Why was he calling her Aunt Brooke? She was an only child, technically she couldn’t be aunt to anyone.

And then she remembered the whole plan. She shot up on her feet and observed the room around her. Once again, she thought it was nicely furnished. Her eyes got caught by a large three-panned bay window on her right. She got closer to it and realized that she wasn’t in Tree Hill. She wasn’t even on ground floor. She didn’t know what floor it was, but from the view out there, she could tell that she was definitely very high. The view was truly magnificent; it showed a huge park below that looked oddly familiar. She squinted; where had she seen this lake before? And was that a carousel on the right?

Wait a second, was that Prospect Park? In Brooklyn?

She had been there several times, and she loved it; she loved everything about Brooklyn. She had always thought that if she were to live in New York someday, it would be in this borough, but… She shook her head and remembered that she couldn’t waste time with the view. She turned on her heels, checked with a quick glance that the kid, Jamie, wasn’t paying attention to her weird behavior, and left the room. She went back to the dining room and saw that it was attached to the kitchen. She quickly looked around, but there was no calendar here, and no phone either. However, there was a bunch of pictures on the fridge.

Her eyes stopped on a picture of Lucas and her, in a pool with Jamie. It must have been taken recently because Jamie looked just like in the picture. Lucas, in the other hand, looked different. He looked a little older, though not like a grandpa either. He looked more… Mature. His hair was shorter and she couldn’t help but think that it suited him. She also looked a little older, her face was thinner than now. They all looked very happy. Her eyes went from Lucas to Jamie on the picture; that’s why the kid looked so familiar. The hair, the eyes… He looked just like Lucas!

She took another picture: one with Mouth, Haley and her. Was Mouth going to the gym? He looked like he had been working out. And holy crap, Haley was blonde! She looked surprisingly good with blonde hair. This picture also seemed recent, as Brooke looked just like in the previous picture, except that she had short hair. Brooke dropped the picture as she patted her own hair, and looked down to see that her long hair was gone. Wow, she hadn’t had hair this short since Nathan had stuck gum in it during 4th grade. She bent over to pick up the picture and put it back on the fridge.

There was a photograph that she knew very well but that she hadn’t seen in a long time: 5th grade Halloween with Peyton and Nathan. They were all dressed up as skeletons.

Her eyes landed on another picture of Peyton and her, one she had taken this summer, just before leaving for L.A.

Another one showed Nate and Lucas playing basketball together; from their looks, Brooke thought it must have been taken not long after high school.

And finally, another one with Lucas and her. She had no idea when it had been taken; it didn’t look like they were in high school, but they didn’t look as old as in the other pictures either. They were sitting on a bench; she quickly recognized the River Court. Lucas had an arm around her shoulders, and she was wearing his grey hoodie, the one from Keith’s shop. There were candles on the ground, at their feet, and for some reason, she looked somewhat sad. Lucas was kissing the top of her head, so she couldn’t clearly see his expression, but she could see hers very well, and she seemed down. She also looked like she had lost weight.

She put the last picture back on the fridge and left the kitchen; she still had no idea how to get to her journals. Peyton was nowhere around, but if she could find her phone then maybe she could talk to her. 

As she was walking down a corridor, she froze in front of a mirror. She immediately got closer, scrutinizing her face. She looked… really good! No white hair, no wrinkles and she was really rocking that short hair! Focus, she reminded herself, focus. She looked away from the mirror and went to the other end of the hall, which led her to what seemed to be the master bedroom. She scanned the room until she saw a cellphone lying on a chest of drawers. She ran to it and with relief saw that her password was still the same.

Okay, first the date, check the date…

February 24th 2025.

She suddenly felt dizzy and had to sit down on the bed. It only lasted for a second, but still, she felt like she was going to faint. 2025? That was five years from now! Five freaking years. This had to be a dream, right?

She went through her contacts, looking for Peyton’s number. If someone knew where her journals were, it had to be her. She scrolled down her screen but didn’t see Peyton’s name. She frowned, and thinking she missed it, started over, only to reach the end of the list once again without finding her best friend’s name. There was like 500 names on this, but not Peyton’s. How could that be? Was she registered under a nickname?

She sighed and threw the phone on the bed; she was not getting any help from that. She stood up and looked around helplessly, under the bed, in the drawers; her heart stopped for a second when she went to the bedside table and saw the white rabbit-shaped lamp sitting there.

She turned away from it and looked at the wardrobe and… There it was, under the coat rack, a huge cardboard box with bold, black capital letters on it reading “Brooke Confidential”. Why the hell would that be in plain sight? She would never do that, it didn’t make any sense. She kneeled, pulled the box towards her and opened it to see a dozen of journals in there. That was five more volumes than what she had written so far. She looked for the one she was filling nowadays, volume 7. When she found it, she opened it to the entry she had written the night before, summarizing her day and mostly her talk with Mouth.

Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it would stop from exhaustion; she was just as excited as she was nervous. She turned the page and read the entry for today, the one she would, hypothetically, write tonight. It was mainly a description of the dream she was having right now. She skimmed through it and went to the next paragraph: _“When I woke up, Mrs Campbell was obviously mad at me. She said her class was boring me too much. I tried to say it didn’t, but she wouldn’t listen and gave me detention. And then, out of nowhere, Lucas tried to talk her out of it, which only angered her more, so he got detention too.”_ Why would he even do that? _“It’s just like it was written in my dream’s journal (should I still call that a dream? We’ll see at the end of the week) I managed to talk to him in detention and apologize to him. I still don’t understand why Lucas asked me to, but I didn’t tell Nathan about that.”_

Brooke frowned; none of that made any sense to her. She flipped several pages and stopped when she read Larry’s name. Peyton’s father; why would she write about him? It was this Friday’s entry: _“I can’t believe it. But then I have to believe now, haven’t I? I mean, he’s really here. Larry came home yesterday night, just like I had read in my ~~dream~~ travel. He’s staying for two weeks, Peyton is thrilled.” _Now that was ridiculous. Larry hadn’t come home in ages, the chances of him showing up this week were near to zero.

“What are you doing?”

Brooke looked up to see that Lucas was standing at the doorframe, staring at her with a curious expression on his face. He looked just like in the picture at the pool.

She shut her journal and waved it at him. “Why isn’t this hidden somewhere safe?”

He frowned, stepping towards her. “What are you talking about, you’re the one who asked me to put it here, you said you needed it.” Befuddled, she looked back at the box full of her journals and put away the one that she was still holding. Lucas kneeled next to her and asked, “Are you okay? Wait you’re… Did you travel again?”

Her eyes grew wide. What had he just said? “Travel?” she repeated, stunned. Her hands started shaking. “Th─ This is too much, it can’t be, it can’t…” She could feel her breathing speeding up, just as it had in Lucas’ room. She had to calm down, otherwise she would end up having another panic attack.

“Come here,” Lucas said, suddenly hugging her. Her initial reaction was to jerk away, but he ignored that and held her closer to his chest. “It’s okay, Brooke, you’re okay,” he kept repeating as he was cradling her head.

At first, it didn’t seem to work at all. But after a few seconds, she closed her eyes and focused on two things: his heartbeat and his voice. Both appeared to be soothing her, as her breathing slowed down and she finally relaxed in his arms. He probably noticed that for he pulled away from her, though still sitting close to her.

“Are you alright?”

She nodded, and hesitated before saying, “You’re good at this.”

He cocked his head. “At what?”

“Making me feel better.”

“I’ve got experience,” he answered with a wink. She looked away at her journals, feeling a slight blush appearing on her cheekbones. He followed her gaze, “So, do you think I can put these away now?”

She frowned. “I don’t know. You should ask… Me, I guess. Where was─ oh wait, I tried to call Peyton.”

“You─ You did?”

She looked up at him. “Yeah, but I couldn’t find her number in my phone.”

“Oh, erm, that’s because it’s your work phone.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I have a work phone? Wow.” She frowned and turned her head to the door, thinking she had heard someone.

“What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t you hear it?” she asked him with a frown. It was very faint, but… Oh, Mrs Campbell’s voice. Uh oh, she didn’t sound too happy. “I think I’m in trouble.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I, erm” ─she looked down at her hands as a familiar tingling sensation appeared on them─ “I fell asleep in science. Mrs Campbell is gonna be mad for sure.”

He frowned a little, as if he was trying to remember something. “Oh right, it’s that day then.”

She tried to ignore the buzzing sound in her ears. “What day?”

“Nothing special,” he quickly said, clearly avoiding her gaze.

“So what you meant to say was: oh right, it’s that absolutely normal day?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, exactly that. Wait” ─he frowned, as if he was struggling to make a decision─ “maybe I should tell you, erm…”

“Tell me what?” she asked, trying her best to focus on his voice, which was not that easy with all her senses currently gone awry.

“I don’t know, I don’t think I’m supposed to─”

“Look, if you want to say something you’ve got about ten seconds before I wake up.”

“Don’t tell Nathan you apologized to me,” he blurted out as she was closing her eyes.

She wanted to ask him what he was talking about, but didn’t get time to.

When she opened her eyes, she was back in her classroom, her head lying on her table. She let out a small sigh, knowing perfectly well that their teacher was towering over her right now, ready to yell at her. She sat up and, lo and behold, Mrs Campbell was indeed staring down at her, looking furious.

“Am I boring you Brooke?”

“Not at all,” she quietly answered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep but─”

“But you did. Since it looks like you need time to rest, maybe you should do so in detention tonight?”

“Tonight?” she repeated, ignoring her teacher’s fuming expression. “But I have a council meeting and I already missed one─”

“Do you think I honestly care about you little meetings?”

“Well no, you have no reason to, but…”

“Precisely. And if you’re terrible at your job, well I can only feel sorry for your fellow students.”

Brooke had to stay calm, getting mad here would only get her extra hours of detention. “I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Her teacher ignored her and walked away to the board. “You can’t get away with everything.”

Another voice rose from the classroom and said, “That’s not really fair.”

The whole class held its breath as Mrs Campbell froze and slowly moved to face the student who had dared to talk back to her. Brooke stared at the back of Lucas’ head, sitting 3 seats in front of her. Why the hell would he say that to their teacher? Did he have a death wish?

“What was that?”

He could still say something else, say anything but─ “I said you’re not being fair.”

Brooke, like most of their classmates, was dumbstruck. She didn’t know if he was being brave, honest, or just plain stupid. Still, a warm feeling appeared in her chest. And then it abruptly vanished when she realized that he was probably doing that because she was Peyton’s best friend.

Self-serving or not, his reaction got him detention too.

During the next period, she spent her entire time writing down her last “dream”, trying to get every detail right. There were just so many things to talk about, that she texted Mouth to ask him if he could meet her in the library for lunch.

She once again ran into Nathan and Haley; they were sitting there at a table, studying. She briefly said hi to them before heading out to where Mouth was sitting. She wondered for a second how often Haley was tutoring him, but then put that thought aside when Mouth started reading what she had written down.

“Wow, this is… Wait, Haley is blonde?!” he exclaimed, startling her and the nearby table.

After an apologetic smile to the librarian, who was still looking disapprovingly at them, she whispered, “Yes but that’s not really─”

“You think I go to the gym?”

She shrugged. “That’s how it looked like, but seriously it’s─”

“And you’re living in Brooklyn?”

“Mouth, who cares about all that! I got the freaking journal!”

“Right,” he said, reading again the last part. “So, it said that you got detention when you woke up, did that happen?”

“Yeah it did, but that was expected, Campbell hates my guts and─”

“And did Luke get detention too?”

He sounded more and more enthusiastic. “Yes.”

“Brooke, that means─”

“No,” she interrupted him, “there’s still the part about Peyton’s dad.”

Mouth rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you still think, after all this, that it’s all just coincidences.”

“I─ I don’t,” she reluctantly admitted, “but I still want to see if that last thing happens, before we can say that I’m… doing whatever it is I’m doing. You know, I’d rather be 100% sure that I’m not just crazy.”

“You’re not,” Mouth said in a soft tone, “but if that’s what you want, fine, let’s wait until Friday and see if Peyton’s father comes.” She gave him a grateful smile. “So now, back to that picture you saw, did I look that good?”

She chuckled, “Yeah you did.”

They talked a little more about the other pictures she had seen, and what Lucas could have meant at the end, right before she had woken up. After a short while, it was already time to go back to class.

She asked Peyton, as nonchalantly as possible, if she had heard any news from her father. Her friend had replied, quite gloomily, that no, she had not.

At the end of the day, instead of going to her meeting, she went to detention. She saw with relief that Whitey, still wearing his sweatpants, was sitting behind the teacher’s desk, his legs crossed and his feet resting on the desk. He raised his eyes from over the book he was reading, acknowledged her presence with a nod, and went back to his reading.

Whitey was notoriously famous for being very hard on the basketball team he was training, but also very laxist when it came to detention. It was his way of stating to the school administration that he thought they were all wasting time.

She took a seat and looked around: there were 5 other students in the room, including Lucas, who was sitting at the far back. She turned to the board again and looked at Whitey. She didn’t have much of a choice now, did she? She had to apologize to Lucas. And thank him. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to buy him another book.

“Is there something you want to ask, Miss Davis?”

How he could know that, without looking away from his book, Brooke had no idea. “Erm, yes,” she said a little startled. “Can I sit somewhere else?”

“Sure, make yourself comfortable.”

There was not an ounce of sarcasm in his voice. She grabbed her backpack and walked with a firm step to the end of the room. She sat right next to a puzzled Lucas, on his left.

“Hi,” she managed to say with a shy smile. Before she could lose her nerve, the words seemingly tumbled out of her in one breath, “So, erm, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I acted like an ass with you the other day, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that, and also thanks for trying to help me with Campbell today, you really didn’t have to do that.”

“Okay,” he replied, still bemused. “I mean, I shouldn’t have said anything to Peyton without─”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” she insisted, shaking her head. “It’s just that, sometimes, when I’m pissed, I just don’t listen to people at all.”

A lopsided smile appeared on his lips. “Tornado Brooke?”

Nathan and his big mouth. “Yeah,” she admitted with a chuckle. “Anyway, I never told you not to tell Peyton, and there was no way you could have guessed that so… And thanks again for Campbell.”

“That was nothing, and it didn’t even help you.”

“No, it wasn’t nothing, so please just accept my thanks because I suck at picking up books as thank you gifts.”

He laughed, making the warm feeling appear again in her chest. “You don’t suck at that.” He bent over to his backpack and took out the book, the one she had given him. “It’s really nice.”

“You started reading it?”

“Yesterday, yeah.”

“What is it about?”

He blinked at her, confused. “You don’t know?”

“I didn’t read it,” she said with a shrug.

“But didn’t you read the back cover?”

She didn’t see why that sounded like a problem to him. “No. I picked it up because I thought the front cover looked nice.”

Lucas glanced at the cover, then back at her, and laughed heartily for several seconds. She wasn’t offended though, because it didn’t sound like he was making fun of her. Actually, he sounded delightful. “It’s a collection of short stories. I just finished the first one, it’s about this guy in Baghdad who finds an alchemist with a portal connected to the future.”

She must have heard wrong, she thought. “To the what?”

“The future.”

Brooke had to appreciate the irony. She fought hard not to break into a nervous laughter, and asked, “Does he go through it?”

“Actually, the first part is all about the alchemist telling him stories of people who used it before him.”

His eyes kept shining as he told her the story in detail. Brooke tried to pay attention, though her mind kept wondering how in the hell she had managed to get him a random book about time travel.

She had always seen Lucas with a book nearby, but it was the first time she had heard him speak about one; it was obvious he was passionate about reading. He became so chatty that even Whitey, as tolerant as he was with them, cleared his throat several times to notify that they should be quieter. Although a bit reluctantly, she went back to her homework for the rest of the hour.

That evening, before going to sleep, she wrote an entry in her journal. She didn’t realize it on that day, but she ended up writing down the exact same words that she had read in her latest “dream”.

Mouth kept texting her every day, asking her if she had heard from Larry. To his disappointment, and she had to admit, to hers too, Peyton had not had any news about him. Not on Tuesday, nor Wednesday, nor Thursday. When Thursday night came and she still didn’t receive a call or a text from Peyton telling her the good news, she went to bed thinking that maybe it had all just been her imagination. But the more she thought about it, the more she did not want it to be a dream.

The next morning, she knew right away, when she saw Peyton waiting for her at her locker, that something was up. She had not seen her best friend that cheerful in a long while.

“My dad’s here,” Peyton announced with a huge smile.

“What?” Was that a joke? Had Mouth asked her to say this?

“He came last night! I got home and there he was, cooking dinner.”

“B─But how? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Peyton seemed surprised by her second question but still answered, “I kinda lost track of time, we talked all night. So anyway, I can’t make it tonight. Brooke?”

“Yeah?” she asked, still in a daze.

“I said I can’t come tonight.”

“For movie night? Oh sure, I mean your dad’s here so… I can’t believe he’s here.”

“And he’s dying to see you, so you’re having lunch with us tomorrow.”

“Sure,” she said with a grin. “I’m so happy for you,” she said as she hugged her. “I have to tell Mouth.”

Peyton took a step back, holding her by her shoulders. “Tell Mouth? Why?” she asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

“No, I meant, see him. I have to see him about something, that, er, has nothing to do with your dad. I mean why would he want to know about your dad, right?” she rambled with a nervous chuckle.

Thankfully, her friend didn’t dwell on that. “You’ll have to wait for that, homeroom starts in five.”

She was right; she didn’t have enough time to talk to Mouth and get in class on time. She certainly could not afford to be late after getting detention earlier this week.

Keeping her attention on whatever her teachers said this morning happened to be an almost impossible task. Every minute felt like an hour, and every hour felt like a day. Finally, lunch break came. She rushed out of the classroom, sprinted across school until she was outside. She spotted the table where Mouth and his friends were sitting and marched over there.

“Mouth!” she yelled as she was arriving behind him. He had barely started to turn around when she yanked on his arm and ripped him from his table. “We need to talk. Now.” She tried hard not to pay attention to the bemused looks that Mouth’s friends, including Lucas, were throwing her.

“Uh, alright.”

They walked away as Brooke was looking for a safe spot in the schoolgrounds; she didn’t want anyone sneaking up on them. She decided on the gym; it was empty as they sat on the bleachers.

“What’s up Brooke?”

“He’s here,” she simply said, her voice suddenly very hoarse.

She didn’t need to say more; he figured it out in a second. His eyes grew wide and showed a mix of amazement and thrill. “B─ But that means that you’re, you’re…”

“Time-travelling, yeah.”

“You don’t look very pleased.”

“Because it’s not pleasing at all! It’s terrifying, that’s what it is,” she admitted in a quiet voice. “I mean… I don’t even control it. What if it happens when I’m driving?”

“But you said you know when it happens, it takes more than a minute from the moment you start having the tingle to the moment you” ─he paused, as if he didn’t want to scare her away─ “travel. So even if you’re driving, you still have time to stop your car before it happens.”

“Alright, so I’m not in any mortal danger, but still… In five years, I’ll be living with Lucas, raising the son he had with someone else?!”

Mouth looked completely lost. “What are you talking about? You mean that kid?”

“Jamie, yeah.”

“You think that’s his son?”

“Trust me, I grew up with Nathan, that boy definitely has Scott genes. And his hair and eyes were just like Lucas’.”

“But, that would mean… How old did he say he was?”

“Four and a half.” She gasped, finally putting two and two together. “Wait, that means he’ll be born next year!”

“Well, you were in February 2025, so he’ll be born… Yeah,” he said after doing the math, “in exactly one year, more or less.”

“And if we take out the nine months of pregnancy, then he’s gonna be conceived in a few months.”

He nodded, “Probably beginning of 2020, yeah.”

“Holy crap. Lucas will be a dad in what, three months? How does that even happen? And who’s the mother? Oh God,” she gasped again, tightly grabbing Mouth’s arm, “what if it’s Peyton?”

“What? Why?”

“Well the hair matches. And he’s still crazy about her, so if someone is more likely to bear his child, it has to be her! And that would explain why he called me Aunt Brooke.”

“He’s not crazy about Peyton,” Mouth said with a chuckle.

“Okay, so I exaggerate a little. But he’s still into her.”

“No, he’s not.” Mouth hesitated, before adding, “It’s probably not my place to say this, but, erm, he hasn’t been into Peyton for a while now. Remember when she rejected him last year?”

“No, no it can’t be,” she mumbled. “I swear, I see him looking at her every day. Even this morning, he was─”

She stopped, confused by Mouth’s conviction. Maybe he was right, he did know Lucas very well. But then, was she imagining things? No, no, even this morning, she had noticed him sneaking a peek at Peyton when she was talking to her. He couldn’t pay her that much attention and not be into her, could he?

“And anyway,” Mouth said, pulling her out of her thoughts, “even if he were, he’s still dating you in five years.”

She sighed. “I know… But how the hell does that happen? And what am I supposed to do with this information? I can’t tell anyone else about it, they’ll think I’m insane.”

“We need to do some research.”

“I don’t think we’ll find information on time travel in the newspaper.”

“No, I’m not sure but─” He frowned and stared at the part of the gym on their left, the one connected to the locker room. “Someone’s coming.”

Two seconds later, Nathan was crossing the gym and walking to them. “What are you guys doing here?”

Brooke glanced quickly at Mouth then said, “Secret meeting for the council. What about you?”

“Oh, I was just training during lunch break.”

“Where’s your stuff?” Mouth asked him.

“My stuff?”

“Your sports bag. There’s no training today.”

“I, er, I left it in my locker. It’s not like anyone’s gonna steal it.” He suddenly looked like he was in a hurry to leave. “See you tonight, Brooke.”

“About that!” she said, making him face her. “Peyton can’t make it, her dad’s in Tree Hill.”

“Larry?” Nathan asked in surprise. “That’s great!”

“Yeah, and that also means she can’t come tonight, so do you want to cancel?”

“Cancel? No way, I’ve already picked the movie.”

“Please, tell me it’s not a car movie?”

He winked. “You’ll see.” He started leaving the gym but once again stopped in his tracks and looked at Brooke. “Hey, have you talked to Lucas yet?”

She was about to say that yes, she had, but then remembered what Future Lucas had told her. He had asked her not to tell Nathan about her apology. She had thought about it and had not figured why he would ask her that, yet she still felt as if she should trust him. “No.”

Nathan gave her a nod and walked out of the gym.

Mouth looked at her with questioning eyes. “Why did you lie?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Lucas asked me to, I mean the one in the future. There’s gotta be a reason.”

Later that day, at 7 pm sharp, Brooke showed up with two pizzas at Nathan’s door. She was about to ring the doorbell when someone called her name. “Brooke?”

She turned around and froze as she was face to face with Lucas. She took a step back. “Lucas? What are you doing here?”

“I was gonna ask you the same. Nathan invited me over.”

“Tonight? But it’s movie night.”

He cocked his head to the side. “I don’t know what that means.”

It meant Nathan had tricked them into coming to his place tonight, without telling them he was inviting the other one. Was that why he had asked her earlier if she had apologized to him? But why would he─ Haley. She said she would do something about them, that she would help her out.

“We should get in before a bus full of secret guests shows up,” she said, glaring at the door. 

Nathan looked extremely proud of his ploy. He took the pizzas and let them in. Lucas went in first, and as he was walking next to his brother, gave him a playful slap on the back of his head.

Nathan looked offended, “What the hell?”

His brother spoke in a low voice, but she could still hear him say, “You know what that was for.”

As they both went to the kitchen to get some beers, and also, she guessed, so that Lucas could tell him that they had already made up, she went straight to the living room and sat on the couch, stretching out her legs on the chaise longue.

So, if she had gotten this right, on Haley’s advice, Nate had invited Lucas so that she could apologize to him. He hadn’t warned her because he probably thought that she wouldn’t have come if she had known, and he hadn’t told Lucas that she was coming because… Well that she didn’t know. On the other hand, Future Lucas had asked her not to tell Nathan about her apology. If she had told Nate, then he wouldn’t have needed to invite Lucas anymore. Which meant that Future Lucas had basically made sure that they would spend the night together. But why?

She quickly texted Mouth to get his opinion on this. He replied not even a minute later: “Maybe something big is happening tonight.” And then, “Maybe you start dating tonight.”

She laughed at that. “No way,” she texted back.

A few minutes later, they came back with pizzas and beers. Nathan sat on the armchair, leaving the couch to his brother. Lucas sat next to her, leaving an acceptable amount of space between them.

This was not going to be easy. How was she supposed to go through an entire movie with him next to her, when she had just found out that they were going to live together in a Brooklyn penthouse five years from now? And that she was possibly helping him raise the son that he was about to have with some other girl?

“Are you all ready?” Nathan asked them, theatrically turning the TV on.

Brooke watched as the screen lit up and showed the movie’s title. “Batman begins?!” she read out loud with horror. “You know I hate superhero stuff!”

“I didn’t complain with your last pick,” Nathan retorted.

“You didn’t know what movie he chose?” Lucas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, that’s the whole point of movie night. We each choose a movie and we don’t tell the others what it is. The one who’s hosting gets to choose.”

“What did you choose?”

“Legally blonde.”

Lucas laughed, while Nathan pointed at his brother, as if proving a point, “See? And I didn’t even complain!”

“That’s because you loved it! You laughed harder than Peyton and I combined!”

That made Lucas laugh harder. “Just watch it, Brooke,” Nathan said with a grin. “It’s much more than just a superhero movie, it’s… It’s a book of philosophy.”

“Alright,” she mumbled, looking back at the screen. “Just play it.”

She was nervous when the movie started, as she kept thinking about why Future Lucas seemed to believe that this was an important night. But after a short while, she got into the movie. It was hard not to.

After almost an hour, she asked for a break.

“There’s ice cream in the freezer,” Nathan said as he was standing up and stretching out his arms. “Hey Luke, why don’t you help her?”

Brooke frowned at her friend. “I don’t need─”

He didn’t let her finish her sentence as he pushed her to the kitchen, Lucas following behind. What was up with Nate tonight? She looked over her shoulder and saw that he was typing away on his phone. He had been doing that the entire time.

“Don’t tell Nate I said this,” she told Lucas when they entered the kitchen, “but this movie is so good!”

He chuckled. “I won’t.”

“Can you get the spoons? They’re in there,” she said, gesturing at a drawer on his right.

“Sure.” She took the ice cream out of the freezer and three bowls to fill. Lucas handed her the spoons and asked, “So where’s Peyton?” 

She looked up at him. “Peyton?”

“Didn’t you say she usually came to these, er, meetings?”

Was that why he had accepted to come? No, that couldn’t be, he had been surprised to see her, so why would he have been expecting Peyton… Unless that was how Nathan had convinced him to come? “Her dad is here. In Tree Hill. He works on a boat, so he’s not often around.”

“Oh.”

She started filling the bowls, avoiding his gaze. “It’s usually just the two of us. Three, with Nathan, but… She’s great, you know, she’s just hard to approach. She built these huge walls around her but once you get through them, she’s really amazing.”

“Uh, okay,” he said, sounding somehow muddled.

She lifted her chin and finally met his stare. “I told her you tried to help with my detention.”

He gave her a puzzled look. “Brooke, do you think that─” He fell silent as Nathan came into the kitchen and walked around them to get a beer from the fridge.

“Do I think what?” she asked, her head tilted.

Lucas looked stealthily at his brother, then shook his head. “Nothing,” he said before leaving the room.

What was that about?

Nathan closed the fridge and turned to her with a guilty look on his face. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No,” she said with a frown, “why would you think that?”

“No reason at all.”

“Didn’t he tell you that I already apologized to him?”

“Yeah he did.”

“Then why do you keep acting as if─” Nathan’s phone chimed again, notifying him of a new text. “Who have you been texting all night? Your secret 5th grade girlfriend?”

He rolled his eyes. “There’s no secret 5th grade girlfriend, and stop saying that, it sounds so creepy.”

She chuckled. “Fine, I won’t say she’s in 5th grade anymore. Where’s your mom by the way? I thought I’d see her tonight.”

“She went out with some friends. How are your parents?”

“Oh, you know,” she said, taking a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, “they’re still acting weird around me. I don’t think they’re fighting, because that usually involves a lot of shouting and broken plates.”

“They’ll be okay.”

“How do you know that?”

“They’ve come through every time, right?”

“Yes, but─”

He shrugged. “So they’ll be fine.”

She put down her spoon and gave him an intrigued look. “Since when are you such an optimist when it comes to parents?”

“People change, Brooke,” he said with another shrug, taking the other two bowls with him as he left the kitchen.

Brooke was so focused during the rest of the movie that she forgot about her ice cream, which turned into a lukewarm soup. When the ending credits rolled, Nathan looked rather satisfied. 

“There’s a sequel, you know. I have it here, but I know you’re not into superhero movies, and I wouldn’t want to impose anything─”

“Just put it on already!” she exclaimed, making them laugh.

She looked at her watch and saw that it was getting late, but hey, if the second movie was as good as the first…

In her opinion, it was even better. However, she started feeling sleepy after an hour or so, and fought hard to keep her eyelids open. She managed to do so once, twice, and then she eventually shut her eyes.

It was a loud, door-slamming sound, that pulled her out of her slumber. She jumped up, confused as to why the Joker was suddenly in a nurse outfit, and looked to her right. She smiled as she saw that both Lucas and Nathan were asleep. She heard more noise coming from the entrance hall and wondered who it could be, before she remembered Nathan had told her that his mother had gone out. She got up and quietly left the room to greet her.

Had she known what she was about to see, Brooke would have definitely pretended to be asleep. When she walked in the hall, Deb was intertwined with a man; both had their tops off, though thankfully she was still wearing her bra. The man was unzipping her skirt as Deb was eating his mouth off.

They hadn’t seen her; she could have slipped away unnoticed, but her mouth opened on its own and words came out before she could think twice about it, “Oh God.” Everyone froze as they unlocked their mouths and turned to Brooke. She quicky covered her eyes with her hand and turned her head away. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see anything.” Except for Deb’s breast of course.

Deb shrieked and Brooke heard them move around, probably to pick up their clothes and put them back on. “Brooke! You’re still here?! I thought you were just here for a movie!”

“Erm, yeah, but it turned into two movies instead, and we ended up falling asleep,” she said, her hand still covering her eyes. “Can I look now?”

“Yes,” Deb mumbled, and as Brooke uncovered her eyes, she could see that she looked mortified.

A sluggish but surprised voice came from the doorway on her left, “Deb?”

They all turned to see that Lucas was now awake too. This seemed to further intensify Deb’s discomfiture. “Lucas? What are you doing here? I thought it was movie night?”

“It is,” Brooke answered, “but we extended the invitations.”

“Well, erm,” she said, looking at her date, “I think we should call it a night.”

The man, who still hadn’t put his shirt on, came close to Deb and whispered something in her ear. She stealthily looked at Brooke, then back at her date, and finally said, “Actually, I should drive my friend back to his place since he has drunk. A very respectable amount,” she quickly added, as her friend was putting his shirt on, not bothering to button it.

Brooke shared a look with Lucas, then said, “Good night, Deb.”

Deb waved at them and hurried out of the house. As she closed the front door, Brooke couldn’t help but break into uncontrollable fits of giggling. She turned to Lucas, who was still staring at the front door, gob smacked. He murmured, “That was…”

“Horrible,” she said, laughing even harder. “And you didn’t even see them half naked sucking each other’s face off.”

He winced. “Wow, thanks for burning that image in my brain.”

“You’re welcome,” she said with a wink, making him chuckle.

“There’s no way I’ll get any sleep tonight.”

“That makes two of us. And I’m hungry.” 

He followed her as she went to the kitchen, using the flash on her phone to find her way. When they got in the kitchen, she figured she still couldn’t turn the lights on, as it would spread in the living room, and subsequently wake Nate up. She walked to a cabinet, took out a few candles, then found a matchbox and lit them up on the kitchen island. There, now she could see properly and Nathan could keep dreaming away.

“You really know your way around this house,” Lucas said, looking impressed.

She grabbed a pair of bowls and once again took the ice cream out of the freezer. “I know every room by heart. When we were kids” ─she offered him a full bowl─ “we used to play here all the time.” Lucas sat on a kitchen stool, opposite her. “I bet I could still win at hide-and-seek.”

“Is that an invitation?”

She grinned. “Maybe another day. And I would have to find another secret spot.”

He laughed. “Of course you had a secret spot. But why another?”

“There was a trap door in a closet, in one of the guest rooms upstairs. Nathan never found me there,” she remembered with nostalgia. “But last year I went to see if it was still there and it’s not, it’s been clogged. Too bad, really, it was the perfect hiding spot. But I probably wouldn’t be able to fit in anymore. Back then I could, but now… Things have changed,” she said with a shrug, “I mean I never thought I’d ever run into Deb in heat.”

“And thank you for reminding me of that.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe Deb has a more thrilling love life than me.”

He raised an eyebrow and said, “Come on Brooke, it can’t be that bad.”

She wondered why she was telling him this, but still answered, “Oh trust me, it is.”

“I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

She looked down at her ice cream and took a spoonful, avoiding his gaze. They were overlapping once again, Future Lucas and Present Lucas. She could hear him say that she was okay, she could feel his arms around her.

“I don’t think we should tell Nathan,” she murmured.

“About what?”

She looked up at him. “Deb. I mean, it’s embarrassing enough for us, so I can’t imagine Nathan’s reaction if he finds out.

“You’re right. I walked on my mom and Keith in bed one day and it scarred me for life.”

She chuckled. “So when did they get together? I knew they were close before but─”

“How did you know that?” he asked, intrigued.

“Tree Hill’s a small place, there’s always rumors going around,” she said with a shrug. “And we’re in high school, which makes it worse. I’ve heard about their will-they-won’t-they relationship for a while now.”

He seemed genuinely surprised by that. “Last year.”

“You must have been thrilled.”

“I was. But honestly, our lives haven’t changed much, I mean Keith was already spending most of his time with us anyway. He, erm, he asked me how you were doing. My mom asked too. They were worried, after what happened in my room.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That you looked like you were just fine, since, um─”

“Since I had made it impossible for you to ask me,” she said with an apologetic face.

“Yeah.” He seemed to hesitate and said, “You didn’t go to school the day after that.”

“Yeah, I went to the doctor’s that day. Actually, I went to the hospital. My parents wanted to make sure that I was fine. I am fine,” she quickly added, when she noticed his frown, “I’m just a little tired these days so I tend to easily fall asleep.”

They talked about the tests she had gone through; she told him about the mean nurse she had met, and how they had observed her in her sleep. “Wasn’t it scary?” he asked after she fell silent. 

“No, it was actually interesting. And at least now I know for sure that I’m fine.”

In the days to come, she would try to remember how they had ended up talking about their respective summer vacations. It had just happened, somehow. She told him about the summer house in L.A. that her father had just acquired, and he told her about his camping trip with Keith. He used to go every year camping with him, each time in a different place.

They talked about what they wanted to do after high school. She was amazed to learn that he wanted to be a writer. She thought for sure that he would want to pursue a sports career, just like Nathan. But then again, he was always reading something, and he always aced their literature tests. He was surprised but somehow impressed when she told him that she wanted to be a fashion designer, and some day have her own brand. When she told him about the fake fashion shows she had hosted as a kid in her house, he said it was cute. And when she let it slip out that Nathan had posed as a model once, she made him swear not to tell anyone she had talked about this because otherwise, she was a dead person. She did promise, in exchange, that she would show him the pictures of Nathan dressed up with Victoria’s dress and heels. He also promised he would let her read his texts if she agreed to show him her sketches; they shook on it.

He told her about Haley, and how he felt that she had been pulling away from him in the past months, little by little. That reminded Brooke that since school had started, she had indeed seen Haley more accompanied by Nathan than Lucas. Before she could hold that thought, he asked her where she was planning to go after graduation. She said she was applying for NYU; their guidance counselor had told her that she had a fair chance at getting in. And she had always wanted to live in New York. He agreed that it would be a nice place to live in. But not in Manhattan, no… Brooklyn, they both said at the same time, startling each other. He then told her he was applying in different schools, mostly in the East coast, as he didn’t want to be too far from his family. She noticed that amongst the schools he named, some of them were in New York.

They talked about many things after that. That she had borrowed Norah Jones’ albums from Peyton and how she was enjoying her music. That he often wished that Dan would move out of Tree Hill, though him living in his beach house meant that he at least didn’t have to run into him as much as he used to. That before high school, he had never talked to Nathan, and he had thought he was just an obnoxious spoiled kid. He laughed when Brooke told him that that was precisely what Nathan had been in grade school, until she had put him back on the straight and narrow.

She thought they had spoken for not even an hour, but realized, when the sun started rising, that it had been in fact several hours. She couldn’t remember when the last time she had pulled an all-nighter was, but she did know that alcohol and partying had been involved. She had never spent an entire night just… Talking.

Nathan woke up not long after that, and looked confused as hell when he saw them drinking coffee in his kitchen. “You guys are still here? When did you wake up?”

“Just now,” Brooke said, trying to avoid any future teasing. Lucas seemed to understand why she had said that, for he didn’t correct her. Instead, he gave her a lopsided smile.

Lucas looked at the time and told them he was starting his shift at the Café in a couple hours. He needed to get home and shower. He left first, and Brooke followed soon after that; she was having lunch with Peyton and Larry today, and she needed to get some sleep before that.

When she got home, her mother was having breakfast. She didn’t seem worried to see Brooke come home only in the morning; she knew her daughter was at Nathan’s.

Brooke managed to sleep the entire morning and woke up just in time to take a shower and head out to Peyton’s. When she got there, she was welcomed by Larry’s bear hug. The table was already set when they all sat and started eating.

He asked her how she was doing, how her parents were doing. She stayed evasive about her parents and then asked him how life on the boat was. They talked about their post-graduation plans, and mostly about the art school Peyton wished to attend in L.A.

When they were done eating, she went to do the dishes with Peyton. She told her about the movie Nathan had picked, and the fact that Lucas had been invited too.

Lucas was a charming guy. He was a really nice person, who was into her best friend. And even though the universe was telling Brooke that in the future, they would be together, she couldn’t help but think that right now, that was not what he wanted. And she had to face it: part of her didn’t want him to get what he wanted, but she needed to be selfless. She had to. He simply deserved it. 

Brooke handed a clean plate to Peyton and said, “We talked a lot, with Lucas. He’s… Well, he’s really nice, and funny. He’s a great listener, too.”

Peyton looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “Brooke, are you saying that you─”

“No, I’m saying this for you.”

“Me?”

“Any chance you would change your mind on him?”

“It’s been a year, why are you bringing this up again?”

She handed her another plate to wipe. “No specific reason. So, would you?”

“No. And anyway, Lucas isn’t into me anymore.”

Brooke snickered. “Yeah, right.”

“No, I’m serious.”

She stopped for a second and stared at her friend. She _was_ being serious. “For real?”

Peyton shrugged. “Seems pretty obvious to me that he’s─” She paused and squinted at Brooke, “You know what, never mind, you should figure the rest by yourself.”

“The rest? The rest of what?”

She didn’t get an answer that day; Peyton had decided to stay cryptic, and there was no changing her mind. Was there something she was missing here?

That day, she texted Mouth and asked him if he was free this weekend. They agreed to meet on Sunday afternoon. When she entered the Café, he was already waiting for her, sitting at a table, his laptop in front of him and an empty glass next to him.

“When did you get here?” she asked him as she sat next to him.

“Never mind that. What happened?”

She frowned, “What do you mean what happened?”

“During movie night! You didn’t tell me.” He then added in a lower voice, “Did you figure out why Future Lucas thought that night was important?”

“Nothing happened,” she said with a shrug. “We just talked.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, we talked the whole night and then we went home.”

“The whole night?” Mouth repeated.

“I, er, didn’t really… We just lost track of time.”

“And you’re still wondering how you end up together?”

She decided to ignore that comment. “Anyway, we didn’t finish our last conversation. How do we get any information on you-know-what? And how do we know for sure that it’s reliable? I keep wondering, can other people do it too?” She glanced at his laptop. “Have you found anything in there?”

He shook his head with disappointment. “Just a bunch of lunatics.”

“Lunatics?” she repeated, a little hurt.

“Oh no,” he quickly added, “I don’t mean you. It’s just that almost every testimony on you-know-what includes a UFO or some kind of alien race. But I did find something else.” He pulled his laptop and placed it in front of them both. He had bookmarked several scientific websites and was currently reading an article titled: Scientists explain why time-travel is possible. “In all of these, it’s explained that it is actually and physically possible.”

“Not physically, no,” she murmured, thoughtful.

“Sorry?”

“I’m not physically going anywhere. I mean if I were, people would have freaked out, right?”

“Right,” he said with a nod. “Your body stays here, asleep. Meanwhile, you wake up in your Future you’s body. But then what happens to you? I mean Future you, what happens to her when you’re in her body?”

“I don’t know.”

She hadn’t thought about that. Where was her future self going? Were they swapping bodies? No, that couldn’t be, people kept telling her that she was just asleep. If her future self really woke up in the present, Brooke would have heard about it by now.

“Look at that,” Mouth told her, pulling her from her thoughts. He was pointing at a word found in a new article.

Brooke squinted as she tried to read the word. “Met─ Metempsychosis? What the hell is that?”

“Transmigration of soul,” Mouth read out loud, “when your soul leaves your body to go in another’s. They say here what you go through could be called transtemporal metempsychosis.”

“That’s a bit of a mouthful. Isn’t there a simpler word? Preferably very short?”

“Mental time-travel. That’s what it says here. Hey, look at that one.” It was another article, titled: Time Travel Via One's Own Thread of Consciousness. “This list includes stories about people who travel through time along their own thread of consciousness,” Mouth read monotonously. “Typically, this means their future self 'possesses', if you will, their past self and relives a scene. One may or may not have the ability to act independently: typically not.” He looked up at her, “That sounds about right.”

“Except I do act independently when I get there.”

“Books and TV,” Mouth said, watching the screen. “Books and TV, Brooke. That’s what you said, it only exists in books and TV.”

“So?”

“So that’s our starting point.” He noticed her skeptical face. “I know, it’s not great, but it’s all we have right now.”

They made a list of every fictitious time-travel they could think of and find on the internet. Books, TV, movies, anything that mentioned going in the future or even in the past.

During the next month, they met three to four times a week. They did most of their homework on their own and shared their notes. Some movies they watched together: Looper, Back to the future, About time, amongst others. Mouth watched three seasons of a show called Dark. Overall, it was quite a tedious work and was definitely not all fun; they kept taking notes as they were reading or watching. Soon enough, they had written more than 50 pages full of personal notes on time travel. 

Meanwhile, she didn’t travel. She was ready for it to happen any time, but it just wouldn’t happen, which became a growing source of frustration. Now that she finally knew what was happening to her, it stopped happening!

In all the sources they used, time-travel took various shapes: many characters used a sort of machine or device, most of them went to the past rather than the future, most were physically travelling, and only a small group left their bodies behind and went into their future or past’s self.

After three weeks of non-stop research, Mouth had shown up at the Café with a bunch of diagrams he had drawn, seemingly in a haste, on a couple of napkins. As he was sitting next to her, she looked at those, wondering what they meant.

“Sorry, I can’t stay too long this time, but here, I think I’ve narrowed it down correctly.”

Last time they had met, they had decided to cross out every story that was too dissimilar to her own type of travelling. He took out a list from his bag and handed it to her. Arrival, About time, The butterfly effect, and…

“Why did you keep the Time traveler’s wife?”

Brooke had read the book, and it didn’t seem to fit. The main character’s body kept leaping in the past or the future.

“Because the guy can’t control his travelling,” Mouth explained, “and he’s one of the only ones who travel in the future.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked at the diagrams. “And what’s up with that?”

“Well, from everything here,” he said, pointing at the pile of notes they had taken, “there’s mainly two, er, ways of travelling.” He handed her a napkin on which he had drawn a straight line, then arrows starting from the line and going back. These arrows started new parallel lines to the original one. “This is About time, and The butterfly effect. You go to the past, or the future, and it changes everything when you get back to your time. You create an alternate timeline.”

He then handed her the other napkin: there was two arrows connected, each tip touching the other’s end, taking the shape of a circle. “In Arrival, and in The time traveler’s wife, future events influence the past, and past events influence the future. It’s a loop.”

Brooke frowned, staring at the napkins in her hands. “So in one case, I could change the present or the future depending on my actions, but…”

“On the other case, you can’t, no matter how hard you want to.”

“Which one do you think applies for us?”

He sighed. “I have no idea. I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.” He looked at the clock above the counter and apologetically said, “I have to go.”

“It’s okay, we’ve pretty much covered the subject anyway.”

“Are you staying?” he asked as he stood up.

“Peyton’s picking me up. See you at school.”

Once alone, she studied their notes once again. She felt as if she had spent, for the past three weeks, all her free time thinking about time-travel. Even her journal’s latest entries were all about that. She stared at the sketches Mouth had made and wondered if she could actually change the future. Did she want to change it? So far, she had no reason to want that, except… Well, except if she tried to get Lucas and Peyton together. And if that was what he wanted. It could actually be a way to test out this theory.

Lucas was working there tonight; she had greeted him right before getting a seat and told him she was still working on her project with Mouth. That excuse had come up three weeks ago, when Peyton had first noticed how often she hung out with Mouth. She watched out of the corner of her eyes when Lucas moved from his spot behind the countertop; she started panicking when he started walking over to her table. She gathered all her notes and quickly hid them away in her bag. She then got out her math homework.

He sat across her, and said with a grin, “I finished it.”

She knew he was talking about her gift. Over the past weeks, he had told her about the short stories, one by one as he was reading them. “What’s your verdict then?”

“That you’re great at randomly picking books.”

She did a dramatic hair flip. “What can I say, I am a woman of many talents.”

“I heard I have to thank you too for my new lamp. We just received it yesterday.”

Her face fell. “I’m sorry, do you hate it?”

He opened his mouth, ready to answer, but marked a pause before saying, “Not at all. It’s very... original. Anyway, can I get you something to drink?”

She checked the time and estimated that Peyton wouldn’t get there before a good ten minutes. “I’ll have a hot chocolate please.”

“Coming right up,” he said, standing up.

The front door opened and a young couple came in. Brooke was ready to shiver, since the weather had drastically changed and was now giving them constant cold wind, but instead, she felt a ray of warmth on her back. It felt as if a huge lamp had been pointed at her. She turned around, but there was no such thing around her. The tingle started a few seconds later. For a moment, she wondered if it was all in her head, but when it started spreading up her limbs, and when her ears started ringing, she knew it was happening again. She checked one last time that she hadn’t left any compromising paper lying around on her table, and when she was done, felt suddenly drowsy. This time, she didn’t even try to fight it.

When she opened her eyes, she thought for a second that she hadn’t travelled after all. She was sitting at a table, her head lying on it. She sat up and looked around; she had definitely just traveled.

She was in a café, just not Karen’s. She had never been there before; it was twice as big as Karen’s, and three waiters were walking around tables to get to their clients. She looked behind her, through a window: the sun was shining high in the sky, hence the warmth on her back. People in the street were wearing summer clothing. She herself was wearing a short-sleeved dress. The seat across from her was empty but didn’t stay that way for long; after a minute, Lucas came back with two cups. He handed her a cup of tea and took a sip of his own drink.

He looked different. Well, actually, he looked younger than the last time she had seen him; he seemed more like when she had woken up next to him during her first travel. But the main reason why he looked so odd to her, was that he had a worn-out face. His eyebrows were narrowed in a deep frown, and he was staring at his drink, thus avoiding her eyes.

“So?” he asked with an unusually stern voice.

What was she supposed to say now? “So what?”

He looked up, and she could see that he was angry. “You said you wanted to talk.”

Brooke had never seen him like that before; neither him nor Present Lucas. So far, he had always been kind, patient and understanding. She felt as if she was seeing a whole new side of him. “Are you mad at me?”

He sighed, pinching the skin between his eyebrows. “Look, if you made me come here just to─”

“I should be mad at you. You didn’t tell me I was time-travelling.” He raised his eyebrows in surprise. His anger diminished a little, though it was still visible. She looked down at her feet and saw a purse; she took out her phone and checked the date: April 18th, 2022. “What are we fighting about?” she asked Lucas after putting her phone away.

“Doesn’t matter.” His anger seemed to fade away a little more. “You look relieved that we’re fighting.”

Wow, he really knew her. “I am,” she admitted with a smile, making his expression soften a bit more. “So far you’ve been way too perfect. It’s nice to see that you get mad, too.” She managed to give him a lopsided smile. “Where are we?” she asked, looking around.

“In a café.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can see that, thanks a lot. But where?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

She frowned at him. “You’re not very helpful.” 

He shrugged and said, “I’m just being cautious.”

“Why would you have to be cautious? You’re not the one time-traveling all over the place.”

“Well, for one thing, I never know when my Brooke is replaced by Past Brooke, I mean, you.” Her cheeks took a light shade of pink when she heard him say “my Brooke”. She knew he had noticed, as he showed her a grin, but he was nice enough not to tease her. “Then I never know when you come from, so I don’t know right away how to interact with you. And last time we met, you were really pissed at me.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked with a frown. “I wasn’t pissed at all when─ Oh.”

Last time she had seen him was in 2025, but that wasn’t the last time he had seen her, because he was currently living in 2022. “See how confusing it can get?” he asked her with a crooked grin.

“Yeah,” she muttered, gazing at her drink. She then remembered what he had just said. “What do you mean by really pissed?”

“Oh, er”, he stuttered, suddenly embarrassed, “you were angry at first, and then, um… Not so much.”

“Wait, was that the first time I travelled? You know, when I woke up in your bed? Did that already happen to you?”

He chuckled at that memory. “That was two travels ago. Right before last Thanksgiving.”

So, that was around November 2021. She made a mental note to write it down as soon as she’d be back in her time. “So, what happened last time for me to be that angry?”

Lucas shook his head, though with an apologetic face, “I’m not telling you.” 

“Why not?”

“You told me not to.”

“I never─ Oh, you mean the me from your time.” He nodded. She remembered what she had talked about with Mouth three weeks before. “What happens to her anyway? I mean, when I’m here, where does she go?”

He looked like he was pondering on whether or not to answer, but eventually said, “Nowhere. You describe─ I mean, she describes it as falling asleep. She doesn’t dream, just wakes up right after you’re gone.”

More answers to give to Mouth. “But how do you know all this?”

He sounded surprised by her question. “You told me,” he said as if it were an obvious answer.

“I told you I could travel in the future and you believed me? Why? How? When did I tell─?”

“Too many questions for one travel, Brooke.” He smiled as he saw her pout, “Sorry, your rules, not mine.”

“Why would I do that?” she wondered aloud, knowing very well that he wouldn’t give her an answer. “Why would I tell you not to tell me stuff, it doesn’t make sense at all.”

“Right now it doesn’t, but someday it will.”

She took a sip of her tea. “We really are together then?”

“Yup,” he said with a beaming smile.

“But how can that be?”

He laughed. “Is that so unrealistic?”

“No!” she hurriedly said, “I mean…” She hesitated and figured it wouldn’t be a problem to say this to him. Present Lucas wouldn’t know. “I thought about it, you know, last year. September 2018,” she added when she saw his thoughtful frown. “After Nathan’s party, I was, er, intrigued. I tried to get to know you better, but you didn’t let me.”

“I… You’re right.”

“Plus, what I don’t get it is that you’re… I mean, back in my time, October 2019, aren’t you supposed to be into Peyton?”

Lucas’ smile faded away and his eyes darkened a bit. “No Brooke, I wasn’t into Peyton then, and…” He hesitated some more before saying, “And at that point, I hadn’t been for a long time.”

“Wh─ No but, you’re… You’re always looking at her. And you used to be so quiet around her.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Was I? Think about it Brooke, was I really doing that?”

She looked down at her tea, mechanically twirling her spoon. Why was everybody so dead set on telling her that she was missing the point completely? Mouth, Peyton, and even Lucas himself. But she knew what she saw, and─

Her head shot up when she heard Lucas call her name. Except he hadn’t moved his lips, and he was still waiting for her answer. She heard him say her name again, and knew for sure it hadn’t come from him. She felt a soft pressure on her right shoulder, as if someone was touching it, though no hand was there. She didn’t want to go back yet. She still had so many questions!

He noticed her disarray and asked her, “What’s wrong?” 

“I” ─she started feeling prickles in her hands and feet─ “I’m going back.”

“Oh,” he sounded disappointed.

“There’s still something I want to know,” she said, struggling to find her words as she started hearing a buzzing sound, “and I’m pretty sure you won’t answer me but I’m trying anyway.” Why was she wasting time rambling on? “Who’s Jamie’s mother?”

Lucas’ almost spat out his drink. “His mother? You don’t know yet?”

“Yet? No, I don’t. So who is─”

Her words got stuck in her throat, and she suddenly felt so sluggish that she knew they would only come out as a slur. No, no, no, she really wanted to know about that boy.

Too late, she had closed her eyes, and a second later, she was back in Karen’s Café, in her own time. She sat up: Present Lucas was staring at her with obvious worry. He handed her the hot chocolate she had asked for.

“You slept for like a minute.”

“Oh, you know,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant, “sleep deprivation is the plague of senior year.”

“You don’t mind if I keep reading here?” he asked, lifting up his book.

She looked at the title. A midsummer night’s dream. “Not at all.” She grabbed a pencil and started working on her homework but couldn’t focus; she was trying to remember a line she had read in that same book, what was it again? She seemed to recall it as she unconsciously murmured the words, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

He lifted his eyes above his book, astonished. “Did you just quote Shakespeare? When did you read this?”

“Last year, I think. It’s in my father’s library.” She shrugged. “I really liked it. Which reminds me, you still haven’t shown me your texts.”

He squinted and put down his book. “And you still haven’t shown me that picture of Nate.”

“Fair enough. But by showing you that picture, I would be risking my life, and I don’t think you’re taking the same risks with your texts.”

“Right, silly me, I hadn’t thought about the possibility of Nathan murdering you.” She laughed, making him grin. He looked over her shoulder, “Hi Peyton.”

Brooke turned around to see that her friend was here. “Hi Luke,” Peyton told him with a smile. “Is Karen here? I wanted to talk to her about Tric.”

“Not tonight, no. Deb is in the back, though.”

“That’s okay, it can wait.”

He stood up. “I should go back to the counter.”

Peyton sat where he had been; she watched as Lucas walked away then stared at Brooke. “What was that about?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were flirting.”

“What?” she asked, offended. “No, I was not.”

Peyton rolled her eyes. “I know your flirting voice, Brooke. But that’s great if you’re─”

“I wasn’t flirting!” she insisted. “You’re seeing things. Or hearing them. And anyway, he’s still pining for you.”

Peyton sighed with exasperation. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but Lucas is not into me anymore.”

“Is,” Brooke corrected.

“Is not.”

“Come on, even now” ─she noticed that he furtively looked at them─ “he’s looking at, er…”

She stopped for a minute and thought about it. She really thought about it, the way 2022 Lucas had just asked her to. He had been looking at someone, and quiet around someone, but it wasn’t Peyton. Everyone kept telling her it wasn’t Peyton. And they were right, Brooke could see that now.

It was someone who was always with Peyton.

Her friend's smile broadened. “Finally getting it, huh?”

“It’s… It’s not you,” she murmured. “He wasn’t being weird around you.”

“Nope,” Peyton said with content. “Well, in a way he was, but that’s only because we’re always together.”


End file.
